Reuteria riegeri subsp. torosensis Bariş & Serdar & İnanç 2020, ssp. n.
Creators: name: Bariş, Çerçi
name: Serdar, Tezcan
name: İnanç, Özgen
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2020
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hemiptera
Miridae
Reuteria
Reuteria riegeri
Reuteria riegeri torosensis

description: Reuteria riegeri torosensis ssp. n.
(Fig. 1)
Type Material: HOLOTYPE: Mersin: Gülnar, 04. VII. 1986, 1 male, (on Quercus sp.) (LEMT); ALLOTYPE: Mersin: Gülnar, 04. VII. 1986, 1 female, (on Quercus sp.) (LEMT); PARATYPES: Mersin: Gülnar, 04. VII. 1986, 2 males, (on Quercus sp.) (LEMT); Kahramanmaraş: Nurhak Dağı, 22. VII. 1984, 2 males, (light trap) (LEMT);
Gaziantep: Araban, 07. VI. 1985, 1 female (LEMT).
Differential diagnosis: Combination of following characters differentiates this species from its congeners; background coloration green with white maculation, antennal segments immaculate except for a black dot on the ventral surface of first segment and a mostly inconspicuous black dot at the root of second antennal segment, ocular index of female 1.8–2.0, membranal cells white with green maculation, lateral process of left paramere with a sickle shaped apical dent (Fig. 1B), vesica with four sclerotized processes as in Fig. 1G.
Description of male:
Coloration: Ground coloration green, whitish maculated. Head green, turning into whitish yellow in dry specimens, four darker colored areas on vertex.Antennae unicolorous pale yellow except for black dot on ventral surface of first antennal segment and faint basal black dot on ventral surface of second antennal segment. Pronotum green, anterior lobe unicolorous, posterior lobe with three more or less strong longitudinal whitish stripes. Scutellum whitish with green lateral borders. Hemelytra with green ground coloration and white and dark green maculation, apices of exocorium and cuneus with minute dark green dot, membrane of hemelytra pale brown with two obscure large pale dots below membranal cells and at tip of the membrane, a short and narrow dark stripe along distal of external margin of main membranal cell, membranal cells with white ground coloration and green maculation. Legs pale green but yellow in dry specimens, immaculate. Abdomen green.
Vestiture: General vestiture long, erect and pale. Head, pronotum, scutellum and hemelytra covered with long, erect and pale setae which are shorter on head and denser on hemelytra. First antennal segment with few long and erect pale setae, rest of antennae covered with short, adpressed and brown setae. Femora and tibiae with short, adpressed and brown setae, tibiae also bear sparse, long and erect pale spines which are longer than width of tibia.
Structure: Length 3.4–3.6 mm, body oblong-ovate, 3.4 × as long as width posterior margin of pronotum. Head transverse, 3.0 × as wide as long, 0.6 × as wide as width pronotum posterior margin, eyes rounded, ocular index 1.6–1.9. Antennae moderately long, first antennal segment 0.5 × as long as diatone, second antennal segment 1.2 × as long as width posterior margin of pronotum, ratios of antennal segments 11: 44: 20: 16. Pronotum trapezoid, 2.4 × long as width of posterior margin, posterior margin 1.8 × as wide as anterior margin, lateral borders and basal border straight. Hemelytra parallel sided, exceeding apex of abdomen. Genital opening with a sharp sclerotized spine along left margin. Left paramere with simple apical process and lateral process at median which is long and moderately bent along whole length and bears prominent sickle shaped dent apically (Fig. 1B). Right paramere elongated, bears numerous small dents on inner surface of apical half and very short lateral process protruding at median which also has few dents apically (Fig. 1 C–D). Vesica with four strongly sclerotized processes as in Fig. 1G (Note that one of branches of second vesical processes is missing in illustration of entire vesica, in order not to create confusion, a separate illustration showing intact second vesical processes is added separately, indicated with a straight line). But in specimens with weak coloration of dorsum, possibly teneral specimens, these processes may lack sclerotization and vesica may appear simple and lack of sclerotized processes as in Fig. 1H.
Female: Very similar to male in all aspects, only ocular index is slightly greater, 1.8–2.0, and dark stripe along the external margin of membranal cell is lacking.
Host plant: Quercus sp.
Etymology: The holotype and allotype of this new subspecies was collected from Toros mountains in Southern Anatolia, therefore its name refers to its type locality.
Comments: Reuteria riegeri riegeri was originally described from Lesbos Island, Greece. The holotype and paratypes were collected from Quercus macrolepis (Strauss & Simon 2014). According to Strauss & Simon (2014), R. riegeri riegeri differs from other species of this genus by the dominance of green coloration of dorsum, different coloration of antennal segments and distinctive parameres and vesica. Both R. serratis sp. n. and R. jordanica show a similar coloration pattern, but the former has remarkably different parameres & vesica and the latter is slightly bigger (3.9–4.2 mm), has a less dominant green coloration of dorsum and lacks sclerotized processes in vesica (Carapezza 2002). As discussed by Henry (1976), shape of parameres is a strong distinguishing character among the species of Reuteria and each species has very distinctive parameres. But in the case of R. riegeri and R. jordanica, both species have identical left paramere, and only slightly different right paramere. Even though both parameres of these two species are not strongly different, vesicas of them are; R. riegeri has four sclerotized processes in its vesica (Fig. 1 F–G) but R. jordanica lacks sclerotized processes in its vesica. Interestingly, among five male specimens of R. riegeri that we examined, two specimens had vesicas with such weakly sclerotized processes that they appeared almost deprived of sclerotized processes as in R. jordanica (Fig. 1H). As to the differences between the nominotypical subspecies and the subspecies torosensis ssp.n.; the lateral process of right paramere of R. riegeri riegeri is long and relatively slender (Fig. 1E), but it is invariably very short and thick in riegeri torosensis ssp. n., and right paramere is apically distinctly bifid in R. riegeri riegeri (Fig. 1E) but it is not apically bifid in three specimens of riegeri torosensis ssp. n. (Fig. 1C) and only a very scarcely separated small protrusion, as indicated by the arrow in Fig. 1D, can be seen in two of the specimens of riegeri torosensis ssp. n. and ocular index of male is 1.4–1.5 in riegeri riegeri but 1.6–1.9 in riegeri torosensis ssp. n. We consider these small differences as properties of geographically isolated subspecies (Map 1) of R. riegeri, and not two distinct species mainly because the vesical processes of our specimens are identical with that of the type material of R. riegeri riegeri (Fig. 1 F–G).
.
description: Published as part of Bariş, Çerçi, Serdar, Tezcan & İnanç, Özgen, 2020, Review of Reuteria Puton, 1875 (Heteroptera: Miridae) species present in Lodos Entomological Museum, Turkey (LEMT), pp. 159-168 in Zootaxa 4878 (1) on pages 160-162, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4878.1.7, http://zenodo.org/record/4424814