Dicyphus rubicundus BLOTE 1929
Creators: name: Sanchez, Juan Antonio
name: Cassis, Gerasimos
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2018
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hemiptera
Miridae
Dicyphus
Dicyphus rubicundus

description: DICYPHUS RUBICUNDUS BLÖTE, 1929
(FIGS 11 A, 27, 31 B, 33, 39)
Dicyphus rubicundus Blöte, 1929: 163 (original description); Carvalho, 1958: 194 (world catalogue); Wagner, 1974: 80; Schuh, 1995: 494 (world catalogue); Ribes & Ribes, (1997): 163–166 (redescription); Kerzhner & Josifov, 1999: 23 (Palaearctic catalogue).
Dicyphus baezi Ribes, 1983: 67 (original description); Kerzhner & Josifov, 1999: 21 (Palaearctic catalogue), new synonymy, this work.
Material examined
Paratype of Dicyphus baezi, 1♂, Spain: Canary Islands: Gomera Island: Meriga, 28.1°N 17.2°W, 15 Aug 1977, Baez (J. Ribes, personal collection).
Spain: Canary Islands: Gran Canaria: Moya (Near Galdar), ex. Aeonium virgineum Webb & Christ (Crassulaceae), 28.14194ºN 15.57500ºW, 34 m, 14 Apr 2007, Sanchez, 5♂♂, 5♀♀ (IMIDA _ ENT 00000415 - IMIDA _ ENT 00000424). La Gomera: El Cedro, ex. Aeonium subplanum Praeger (Crassulaceae), 28.12778ºN 17.21527ºW, 800 m, 12 Apr 2007, Sanchez, 5♂♂, 5♀♀ (IMIDA _ ENT 00000435 - IMIDA _ ENT 00000444). La Palma: Lomo de Mestres: San Pedro de Peña Alta, ex. Aeonium palmense Webb ex Christ (Crassulaceae), 28.66556ºN 17.80889ºW, 747 m, 10 June 2009, Sanchez, 11♂♂, 8♀♀ (IMIDA _ ENT 00000111 - IMIDA _ ENT 00000129). Tenerife: Icod el Alto, ex. Aeonium canariensis (L) Webb & Berth (Crassulaceae), 28.31754ºN 16.42396ºW, 660 m, 10 Apr 2008, Sanchez, 5♂♂, 5♀♀ (IMIDA _ ENT 00000405 - IMIDA _ ENT 00000414); 14 Oct 2008, Sanchez, 9♂♂, 6♀♀ (IMIDA _ ENT 00000338 - IMIDA _ ENT 00000352); Las Mercedes – Taganana road, ex. Aeonium canariensis, 28.53333ºN 16.25500ºW, 820 m, 15 Oct 2008, Sanchez, 12♂♂, 6♀♀ (IMIDA _ ENT 00000315 - IMIDA _ ENT 00000332); Los Realejos–Icod road, ex. Aeonium canariensis, 28.38000ºN 16.59861ºW, 516 m, 16 October 2008, Sanchez, 23♂♂, 17♀♀ (IMIDA _ ENT 00000267 - IMIDA _ ENT 00000306) (IMIDA).
Diagnosis
Dicyphus rubicundus is recognized by the following combination of characters: macropters and brachypters in both sexes; body length 4.29–4.45 mm in macropterous males, 2.76–3.04 mm in brachypterous males, 4.15–4.69 mm in macropterous females, 2.70–3.19 mm in brachypterous females; body stramineous to brown, with dark-brown markings (Fig. 33); frons+vertex with dark brown X-shaped marking; clypeus mostly stramineous; mandibular plate stramineous; maxillary plates dark brown; thorax brown, with dark markings posterolaterally on callosite region and mesoscutum; brown markings on corial fracture, apex of endocorium and tip of cuneus in macropters; hemelytra mostly pale, whitish, stramineous, generally with dark spots at base of setae; AI short, mostly stramineous to brown, with subbasal and subapical dark reddish brown annulations; AII mostly stramineous with subbasal brown annulation and distal 1/4 dark brown; pygophore with large posteroventral brown spot; left paramere apophysis greatly elongate and strongly recurved, with shaft not expanded and outer margin minutely denticulate proximally (Fig. 11A); aedeagus with three endosomal lobes, medial lobe with 5–11 small lobal sclerites, lateral lobes densely spinulate (Fig. 31B).
Redescription
Males. Macropters and brachypters examined.
Coloration (Fig. 33): Dorsum mostly brown with darker markings, plus orange/red highlighting. Head: frons+vertex with a X-shaped dark-brown marking, extending to posterior margin of eyes; vertex orange; postocular margins of head orange medium brown; gula and bucculae stramineous; clypeus stramineous with medium-brown highlighting dorsally; mandibular plates stramineous; maxillary plate embrowned. Antennae: AI with subbasal and subapical dark reddish brown annulations, stramineous to light brown medially; AII mostly stramineous, with subbasal annulation and distal 1/4 dark brown; AIII and AIV concolorous, uniformly light to medium brown; antennae often paler overall in brachypters, with AII sometimes without brown markings, or faint at most, and AIII and AIV paler brown to stramineous. Pronotum: collar variable from stramineous to brown, translucent; callosite region with variable embrownment; disk stramineous, humeral angles embrowned. Thoracic pleura and sterna: propleuron most often with shiny dark brown transverse band, ventral margin stramineous overall, with reddish highlighting, more so in some brachypters; mesobasisternum most often medium brown, sometimes bicoloured with light reddish brown mottling; mesepimeron whitish to stramineous; metepisternum varying from mostly medium brown to brown intermixed with stramineous highlighting. Mesoscutum: mostly orange, with faint embrownment laterally, darker reddish brown laterally in some brachypters. Scutellum: lateral angles broadly pale stramineous to whitish with dark reddish brown stripe along midline. Hemelytra: translucent, mostly stramineous with medium-brown to reddish brown markings/ highlighting, generally with dark spots at base of setae; with three pairs of medium-brown to reddish brown markings, each pair at corial fracture, apex of endocorium and tip of cuneus; membrane veins embrowned; mostly translucent with two pairs of faint brown spots distally in brachypters. Abdomen: venter mostly stramineous, with basal sternites and lateral regions of pregenital sternites dark brown, sometimes with red or orange highlighting; pygophore mostly stramineous, with anterior embrownment and large dark-brown spot posteroventrally.
Structure: Head: interocular distance 1.52–1.63× greater than eye width in macropters, 1.55–1.76× in brachypters. Antennae: AI 1.49–1.66× longer than interocular distance in macropters, 1.39–1.51× in brachypters; AII 1.11–1.25× longer than posterior width of pronotum in macropters, 1.35–1.44× in brachypters. Pronotum: disk 1.04–1.37× longer than callosite region in macropters, 0.74–1.37× in brachypters. Male genitalia: left paramere apophysis greatly elongate and strongly recurved distally, shaft straight and not expanded, with outer margin minutely denticulate proximally (Fig. 11A); aedeagus with three endosomal lobes, medial lobe with 5–11 small endosomal lobal sclerites, lateral lobes densely spinulate (Fig. 31B).
Females. Macropters and brachypters examined. Coloration, vestiture, texture and structure mostly as in males. Head; interocular distance 1.47–1.68× longer than eye width in macropters, 1.36–1.60× in brachypters. Antennae: AI 1.39–1.48× longer than interocular distance in macropters, 1.42–1.53× in brachypters; AII length 0.96–1.07× posterior pronotal width in macropters, 1.18–1.26× longer in brachypters. Pronotum: disk 1.15–1.32× longer than callosite region, 0.70–0.81× in brachypters.
description: Published as part of Sanchez, Juan Antonio & Cassis, Gerasimos, 2018, Towards solving the taxonomic impasse of the biocontrol plant bug subgenus Dicyphus (Dicyphus) (Insecta: Heteroptera: Miridae) using molecular, morphometric and morphological partitions, pp. 330-406 in Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 184 on pages 396-397