Austrotichus rugosus GROSS 1975
Creators: name: Gerry Cassis
name: Loren Vanags
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2006
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hemiptera
Scutelleridae
Austrotichus
Austrotichus rugosus

description: Austrotichus rugosus GROSS 1975 (Figs 3a, 4, 5, 6, Table 4)
Austrotichus rugosus GROSS 1975: 582 (n.sp.); MCDONALD & CASSIS 1984: 544, Figs 17-22 (description, ♂ & ♀ genitalic illustrations); CASSIS & GROSS 2002: 582 (catalogue)
Diagnosis: Austrotichus rugosus is recognised by the following combination of characters: body strongly convex dorsally; dark grey-brown (Fig. 3a); heavily punctate (Fig. 3a); AII(a) short; AIV longest segment; labium extending to posterior margin of abdominal sterna IV; and, genitalia as in generic description (Fig. 5).
Description: Body moderately large, males 10.03-12.22 mm, females 11.10-12.66 mm.
Colouration. Body mottled yellow-brown to most often dark grey-brown (Fig. 3a), punctures black, with scattered polished yellow regions on callosite region of pronotum. Head: darker brown on clypeal margins extending to posterior margin of vertex; antennae dark-brown, sometimes AI proximally yellow; labium uniformly fuscous. Pronotum: calli with dark brown outline. Scutellum: anterolateral foveae black. Thoracic pleura: yellow-brown. Pregenital Abdomen: venter mostly mottled yellow-brown, spiracular-trichobothrial region polished yellow; posterior angles of SIV-VIII with anterior 1/2 yellow, posterior 1/2 fuscous (Fig. 3a).
Texture. Body densely punctate, punctures irregularly distributed often coalesced.
Vestiture. Dorsum almost glabrous; antennae: AI almost glabrous, sometimes AII(a,b) also glabrous or nearly so, AIII-AIV with moderate distribution of short semierect setae; genae pilose; abdominal venter moderately pilose, more so on lateral margins, sternal sutures and terminalia.
Structure. Antennae: AI relatively elongate, just surpassing lateral margins of head; AII(a) short; AII(b) and AIV roughly subequal in length; AIII longest segment. Labium: reaching between posterior margin of abdominal sternite IV; LII longest segment; LIV shortest segment. Abdominal Venter: posterior angles of SIV-VII expand-ed (Fig. 3a). Male genitalia as in generic description (Fig. 5).
Measurements. Table 2. MCDONALD & CASSIS (1984) did not provide measurements for this species.
Type material examined: Holotype: ♂, Port Lincoln, South Australia (SAMA I 20,400). Paratypes: 1♀, same data as holotype (SAMA I20,402); 1♀, Keith, South Australia, ex leaf litter, June 1952, MG coll. (SAMA I20, 404; paratype seen); 1♀, 23 mi. E Ravensthorpe, Western Australia (SAMA I20,600); 1♂, Wembley Park, 8 mi. N Perth, Western Australia, 4-xi-1935, RE Turner, BM 1935-240 (BMNH); 1♀, Dedari, 40 mi. W Coolgardie, ii-21 -i-1936, RE Turner BM 1936-28 (BMNH).
Other material examined: Victoria: 1♀, Little Desert National Park, Stans Camp Track, 36°35.211’S 138°33.732’E, 173 m, RT Schuh, G Cassis, MD Schwartz & R Silveira, 6 November 2002, ex Allcasuarina pusilla (AM); Southern Australia: 1♀, Scorpion Springs Conservation Park, 35.626S 140.867E 100m, G Cassis, RT Schuh and R Silveira, 10 November 1998, site 98-40, ex Allocasuarina pusilla (AM); Western Australia: 3♂♂ 5♀♀, 17 km W of Brand Highway on Green Head Road, 30.05S, 115.133E, 350m, G Cassis and RT Schuh, 1 November 1996, site 96-53, ex Allocasuarina humilis (AM); 1♀, Madfish Bay, William Bay National Park, 35.017S, 117.25E, 100 m, G Cassis, RT Schuh and R Silveira, 1 December 1999, site 99-54, ex Allocasuarina humilis (AM); 2♀♀, Eneabba, RP McMillan, 12-viii-1978 (WAM).
Distribution: Austrotichus rugosus is broadly distributed in temperate Australia, from Western Australia to Victoria, including South Australia (Fig. 6). This work includes new records from Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia. The species exhibits a significant distributional disjunction, between southwest Western Australia and the southern region of the Murray-Darling basin.
Host plants and biology: The Green Head Road specimens of Austrotichus rugo-sus were found on the sheoak species, Allo-casuarina humilis (Casuarinaceae); a monoe-cious shrub commonly found in heath habi-tats in southwest Western Australia. Both sexes were collected on the female seed cones, in association with the true bug species Laryngodus australis HERRICH-SCHA-EFFER (Rhyparochromidae: Udeocorini) and Cermatulus nasalis (WESTWOOD) (Pentato-midae). Despite their large size, these jewel bugs are surprisingly cryptozoic, with their mottled colouration blending closely with the dark brown colour of the female cones. Similarly, the South Australian specimen was collected on the female seed cones of another species of Allocasuarina, A. pusilla. We have not made direct observations of feeding behaviour, although their presence on seed cones is suggestive of seed-predation, as opposed to sap-feeding proposed by CASSIS & GROSS (2002). GROSS (1975) in describing this species, documented that one of the paratypes was found in leaf litter. This is consistent with other jewel bugs, such as Choerocoris paganus, which are known to be pre- and post-dispersal seed predators.
Remarks: GROSS (1975) described this species from a handful of specimens from South Australia and Western Australia. He also provided a habitus illustration and detailed description of non-genitalic characters. MCDONALD & CASSIS (1984) described the male and female genitalia and first recognised that the peritreme of the metathoracic glands is distinctively short. The male genitalia are largely invariant across its distributional range.
description: Published as part of Gerry Cassis & Loren Vanags, 2006, Jewel Bugs of Australia (Insecta, Heteroptera, Scutelleridae), pp. 275-398 in Denisia 19 on pages 305-306, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.12996779