The Genus Sphyrocoris Mayr (Heteroptera: Scutelleridae: Pachycorinae)

The genus Sphyrocoris is reviewed and found to contain a single species, S. obliquus (Germar, 1839). The following taxa are new junior synonyms of S. obliquus: Homaemus punctellus Stål, 1862; Sphyrocoris elongatus Distant, 1880; Sphyrocoris punctellus nigricans Kirkaldy, 1909; Sphyrocoris punctellus pallidomaculata Kirkaldy, 1909; and Sphyrocoris punctellus sanguineoconspersa Kirkaldy, 1909. Lectotypes are designated for H. punctellus, S. punctellus nigricans, S. punctellus pallidomaculata, and S. punctellus sanguineoconspersa

Mecidea longula Stål (Heteroptera: Pentatomidae: Pentatominae: Mecideini) is established in south Florida

A Caribbean species of Mecidea Dallas, M. longula Stål, apparently established in south Florida, is reported from the United States for the first time. Specimens were first collected in February 2008 in a light trap operated in Miami-Dade County, Florida. Collections in that trap have continued through the present. Searches near the trap location resulted in several specimens being taken from smutgrass, Sporobolus indicus (L.), an exotic grass now established throughout much of the southeastern United States. The three North American species of Mecidea are keyed and illustrated. In addition to the Florida locality, M. longula is reported for the first time from the British Virgin Islands, St. Kitts, St. Martin, and the Turks and Caicos Islands

Description of the male of \u3ci\u3eEuschistus (Euschistus) baranowskii\u3c/i\u3e Eger and Bianchi (Heteroptera: Pentatomidae: Pentatominae: Carpocorini)

Euschistus (Euschistus) baranowskii Eger and Bianchi (Heteroptera: Pentatomidae: Pentatominae: Carpocorini) was described based on a single female specimen. In this paper, I describe the male of the spe­cies, primarily the genitalia, and compare it to other species of Euschistus (Euschistus) Dallas

A new species of \u3ci\u3eDiolcus\u3c/i\u3e Mayr (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Scutelleridae: Pachycorinae) with a reexamination of the subfamily and generic placement of \u3ci\u3eNesogenes boscii\u3c/i\u3e (Fabricius) (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Scutelleridae: Elvisurinae or Pachycorinae)

Diolcus thomasi Eger new species (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Scutelleridae: Pachycorinae), is de­scribed from Cayman Brac and Little Cayman Island and compared to D. chrysorrhoeus (Fabricius), its closest congener. Nesogenes boscii (Fabricius) is removed from the Elvisurinae and placed in the Pachycorinae. The relationship of N. boscii to D. thomasi and D. chrysorrhoeus is discussed. Diolcus Mayr (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Scutelleridae: Pachycorinae) currently contains six valid species: D. cassi­doides (Walker) from Hispaniola, D. chrysorrhoeus (Fabricius) from the southeastern US and Texas, D. disjunctus Barber from Puerto Rico, D. irroratus (Fabricius) from Florida and many of the Caribbean Islands, D. pusillus Berg from Argentina and Uruguay, and D. variegatus (Herrich-Schaeffer) from Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica and adventive in Florida (Eger and Baranowski 2002). There has been little work on this genus recently and it is in need of revision. Horváth (1921) removed Diolcus boscii (Fabricius) from Diolcus and placed it in a new genus, Nesogenes Horváth. He also placed the new genus in Elvisurinae based on the expanded lateral carinae of the thoracic sterna. The placement of N. boscii in the Elvisurinae has been challenged in recent years. Cassis and Vanags (2006) considered the genus incertae sedis and excluded it from the Elvisurinae. Eger et al. (2015) suggested that Nesogenes is more closely related to genera of Pachycorinae than to those of Elvisurinae. However, the subfamily placement of the genus remains unsettled. The purpose of this study is to describe a single new species of Diolcus and clarify the subfamily placement of Nesogenes. This paper is dedicated to the memory of Mike Thomas, a good friend and avid collector of insects, particularly on Caribbean Islands

A new species of \u3ci\u3eBrachycerocoris\u3c/i\u3e Costa (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Pentatomidae: Podopinae) from the Philippines

A new species, Brachycerocoris woodruffi Eger, is described from Mindanao Island, Philippines. The new species is described, illustrated and compared to the two other species of Brachycerocoris Costa occurring in the Philippines, B. dromedarius (Vollenhoven) and B. davidii Roca-Cusachs and Salini. Brachycerocoris Costa belongs to the Brachycerocoris group of the Podopinae (Rider et al. 2018) and is represented in Africa by three species, B. afer Stål 1876, B. congoanus Schouteden 1905, and B. patrizii Mancini 1939. The genus has historically contained just two species in the Oriental region, B. camelus Costa 1863, described from China, and B. dromedarius (Vollenhoven 1863), described from Tondano, Sulawesi. Distant (1902) added Sri Lanka to the distribution of B. camelus and provided a description and illustration. Subsequent authors reported B. camelus from the Indian states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu (Ramachandra Rao 1920; Chatterjee 1934; Chandra 1953; Schaefer 1997), while Rider and Zheng (2005) added to the known distribution of B. camelus in China. Schaefer et al. (1996) provided descriptions and illustrations of the two Oriental species known at that time, adding Mindoro, Philippines to the distribution of B. dromedarius. Salini and Roca-Cusachs (2021) recently reviewed the genus in the Oriental region and described two new species, B. davidii Roca-Cusachs and Salini from Mindanao, Philippines and B. petrii Salini and Roca-Cusachs from Karnataka State, India. They also reported B. dromedarius from Luzon, Philippines and Sumba Island, Indonesia and suggested that the records of B. camelus from India and Sri Lanka may actually refer to B. petrii. While examining Philippine material in the University of Georgia Collection of Arthropods in Athens, GA, USA, I encountered several specimens of Brachycerocoris from the Philippines, including a single specimen of an apparently undescribed species with a distinctive pygophore. This species is here described, illustrated, and compared to other Philippine species of the genus

Relating the radar backscattering coefficient to leaf-area index

The relationship between the radar backscattering coefficient of a vegetation canopy, sigma(0) sub can, and the canopy's leaf area index (LAI) is examined. The relationship is established through the development of a model for corn and sorghum and another for wheat. Both models are extensions of the cloud model of Attema and Ulaby (1978). Analysis of experimental data measured at 8.6, 13.0, 17.0, and 35.6 GHz indicates that most of the temporal variations of sigma(0) sub can can be accounted for through variations in green LAI alone, if the latter is greater than 0.5

A three-part geometric model to predict the radar backscatter from wheat, corn, and sorghum

A model to predict the radar backscattering coefficient from crops must include the geometry of the canopy. Radar and ground-truth data taken on wheat in 1979 indicate that the model must include contributions from the leaves, from the wheat head, and from the soil moisture. For sorghum and corn, radar and ground-truth data obtained in 1979 and 1980 support the necessity of a soil moisture term and a leaf water term. The Leaf Area Index (LAI) is an appropriate input for the leaf contribution to the radar response for wheat and sorghum, however the LAI generates less accurate values for the backscattering coefficient for corn. Also, the data for corn and sorghum illustrate the importance of the water contained in the stalks in estimating the radar response

Resources Underlying Visuo-Spatial Working Memory Enable Veridical Large Numerosity Perception

Humans can quickly approximate how many objects are in a visual image, but no clear consensus has been achieved on the cognitive resources underlying this ability. Previous work has lent support to the notion that mechanisms which explicitly represent the locations of multiple objects in the visual scene within a mental map are critical for both visuo-spatial working memory and enumeration (at least for relatively small numbers of items). Regarding the cognitive underpinnings of large numerosity perception, an issue currently subject to much controversy is why numerosity estimates are often non-veridical (i.e., susceptible to biases from non-numerical quantities). Such biases have been found to be particularly pronounced in individuals with developmental dyscalculia (DD), a learning disability affecting the acquisition of arithmetic skills. Motivated by findings showing that DD individuals are also often impaired in visuo-spatial working memory, we hypothesized that resources supporting this type of working memory, which allow for the simultaneous identification of multiple objects, might also be critical for precise and unbiased perception of larger numerosities. We therefore tested whether loading working memory of healthy adult participants during discrimination of large numerosities would lead to increased interference from non-numerical quantities. Participants performed a numerosity discrimination task on multi-item arrays in which numerical and non-numerical stimulus dimensions varied congruently or incongruently relative to each other, either in isolation or in the context of a concurrent visuo-spatial or verbal working memory task. During performance of the visuo-spatial, but not verbal, working memory task, precision in numerosity discrimination decreased, participants’ choices became strongly biased by item size, and the strength of this bias correlated with measures of arithmetical skills. Moreover, the interference between numerosity and working memory tasks was bidirectional, with number discrimination impacting visuo-spatial (but not verbal) performance. Overall, these results suggest that representing visual numerosity in a way that is unbiased by non-numerical quantities relies on processes which explicitly segregate/identify the locations of multiple objects that are shared with visuo-spatial (but not verbal) working memory. This shared resource may potentially be impaired in DD, explaining the observed co-occurrence of working memory and numerosity discrimination deficits in this clinical population

Occurrence of the Old World bug Megacopta cribraria (Fabricius) (Heteroptera: Plataspidae) in Georgia: a serious home invader and potential legume pest

Specimens of Megacopta cribraria (Fabricius) were collected in northern Georgia in late October 2009, where they were invading homes in large numbers. This is the first known occurrence of this species and the family Plataspidae in the New World. Megacopta cribraria was previously known from Asia and Australia. A key is provided to separate Plataspidae from other families of Pentatomoidea in America North of Mexico. A diagnosis and figures are provided to facilitate recognition of M. cribraria. Reported host plants and other aspects of the biology of this species are reviewed. Megacopta cribraria is considered a pest of numerous legumes in Asia, has the potential to provide biological control of kudzu, Pueraria montana var. lobata (Willd.) Ohwi, (Fabaceae) and likely will continue to be a household pest in the vicinity of kudzu fields as well as become a pest of North American legume crops