Amnestus raunoi, a new species from Iran, the representative of the New World subfamily Amnestinae for the first time recorded in the Old World is described, illustrated and compared with its closest relative - A. pusillus Uhler

Lis, Jerzy

English

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© Entomologica Fennica. 7 July 1998 Amnestus raunoi n. sp. from Iran, the first Old World representative of the New World subfamily Amnestinae (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Cydnidae) Jerzy A. Lis Lis, J. A. 1998: Amnestus raunoi n. sp. from Iran, the first Old World representative of the New World subfamily Amnestinae (Hemiptera: Hete-roptera: Cydnidae).- Entomol. Fennica 9: 5-7. Amnestus raunoi, a new species from Iran, the representative of the New World subfamily Amnestinae for the first time recorded in the Old World is described, illustrated and compared with its closest relative - A. pusillus Uhler. Jerzy A. Lis, Department of Zoology, University of Opole, Oleska 22, PL-45-052 Opole, Poland Received 30 October 1996, accepted 14 October 1997 1. Introduction The subfamily Amnestinae contains the single genus Amnestus Dallas with 25 extant species known to be restricted in their distribution range only to the western hemisphere. The genus Am-nestus Dall. is (as is the subfamily Amnestinae) easily recognisable among all the Cydnidae by the presence of a distinct claval commissure, a very unusual feature even in whole Pentatomoi-dea. During a visit to the Gilan province in Iran (made by Rauno E. Linnavuori in 1994), four specimens (one male and three females) undoubt-edly representing the genus Amnestus were col-lected. The specimens appeared to represent a new species, which is described below. The Gilan province is quite unique in the whole Middle East. Owing to the influence of the Cas-pian Sea the climate is very humid (annual rain-fall in lowlands about 1.5 m, in mountains still higher). Mountain slopes are covered with dense deciduous forests, lowlands with rice and tea plan-tations. The new species was found at a light trap near rice fields at Sume'eh Sara. The main local-ity is a little planted park (Quercus sp., Ulmus sp.) in Rasht, where the bugs were collected by R. E. Linnavuori also in July-August 1995-1996; nevertheless, despite repeated attempts further specimens of this new species have not been found. 2. Description of a new species Amnestus raunoi, sp. nov. Fig. la-c Type material. !ran: Gilan, Sume'eh Sara, male holotype, 2 female paratypes, 4-5.8.1994, R. Linnavuori; Iran: Gilan, Rasht, female paratype, 2-3.8.1994, R. Linnavuori; Halo-type and one paratype in R. E. Linnavuori collection, two paratypes in J. A. Lis collection. Description. Body length 2.39 mm (male), 2.32-2.49 mm (female), body width 1.16 mm (male), 1.17-1.27 mm (female). General colora-tion brownish-yellow; head, pronotum and scu-tellum darker than corium. 6 Lis: Amnestus raunoi n. sp.from Iran • ENTOMOL. FENNICA Vol. 8 b a Fig. 1. Amnestus raunoi n. sp. -a: Body outline. - b: Head. - c: Male posterior leg. Head (Fig. lb) broader than long. Clypeus conspicuously longer than paraclypei, and apically with four pegs; each paraclypeus with four sub-marginal pegs becoming finer toward eye. Head surface, except clypeus and anterior part of para-clypei, with large coarse punctures. Eyes reddish-brown, ocular index about 2.9-3.1; ocelli large, reddish-brown. Antennae five-segmented, pale brown, 3rd and 4th segments longest, almost equal to each other, 3rd segment about 7.5-8.5 times longer than the 2nd. Rostrum pale brown, reach-ing between middle coxae. Pronotum (Fig. la) 1.4-1.6 times wider than long; anterior margin conspicuously concave; lat-eral margins slightly concave in basal third, and submarginally with a few (3-4) long hair-like setae. Pro notal transverse impression distinct, lat-erally marked by regular row of coarse punctures. Anterior lobe of pronotum with coarse punctures almost over entire surface (in the holotype male the puncturation is weaker than in the paratype females); the posterior lobe, except apices of umbones, almost evenly coarsely punctured. Scutellum distinctly evenly punctured, punc-turation as dense as on the anterior lobe of pro-notum, punctures slightly larger than those on pro-notum. Corium paler than head, pronotum and scutel-lum; clavus with three rows of punctures, claval commissure distinct; mesocorium almost impunc-tured except for two rows paralleling claval su-ture; exocorium densely evenly punctured with the exception of costal area; costal margins ba-sally slightly serrated. Membrane semihyaline, distinctly surpassing the tip of abdomen. Propleuron impunctured, except for a row of punctures in depression; propleural carinae about as high as the 2nd rostral segment. Anterior femur of female ventrally with small, hardly visible spine; anterior tibia of male with two prominent spines on inner margin; posterior femur of male with long, stout, sharply ended ENTOMOL. FENNICA Vol. 8 • Lis: Amnestus raunoi n. sp. from Iran 7 spine, reaching about one third of posterior tibia length (Fig. lc). The last abdominal stemite of female with a flattened, polished area medially. Etymology. The species is named after Rauno E. Linnavuori, who has collected the material during his trip to Iran. 3. Discussion Of all the American species of the genus, A. raunoi appears to be very closely allied to A. pusillus Uhler. The two species are the only members of the genus characterised by the presence of four subapical pegs on clypeus coupled with the pres-ence of a long strong subapical spine on the pos-terior femur (in male) and a flattened polished area on the middle of the last stemite (in female). The new species can be separated from its American congener (apart from its different distribution area) by the following characters: male - subapical spine on posterior femur slender and long (almost halflength of posterior tibia) in A. pusillus, while it is more stout and shorter (about third length of posterior tibia) in A. raunoi (Fig. lc); female-posterior femur with short, oblique subapical spine on the ventral margin in A. pusillus, posterior fe-mur without such a spine in A. raunoi; anterior femur without modification in A. pusillus, ante-rior femur with small spine on ventral margin in A. raunoi. The discovery of a Palaearctic species of the genus Amnestus seems to be very surprising; it also refutes the prevailing well-defined distribu-tion area of the genus and the subfamily as a whole (hitherto confined to the New World territories). Neve1theless, some genera of Cydnidae have a similar (but reverse) pattern of distribution as the genus Amnestus. Chilocoris Mayr and Micro-porus Uhler (of subfamily Cydninae), and Sehirus Amyot et Serville (of subfamily Sehirinae) all have many species in the Old World regions, while only the single representative in the New W odd (Froe-schner 1960, Lis 1993, 1994)- Chilocoris repe-titus (Uhler), Microporus obliquus Uhler, and Se-hirus cinctus (Palisot de Beauvois), respectively. Froeschner (1960: 631) found one specimen of A. pusio (St'l) labelled "Madagascar". He treated it as either a case of mislabelling or at most a stray specimen carried into that part of the world by the agency of man. In the light of the present knowledge on the distribution of the genus, it can not be excluded that also the specimen from Mada-gascar represented a native Old World species (closely allied to A. pusio, and as such treated by Froeschner, op. cit.). Till more material of the genus Amnestus found (without doubt) in the Old World countries is available, only a single spe-cies of the genus should be included in the fauna of that region. Acknowledgements. My sincerest thanks to Rauno E. Linnavuori for the loan of the material, as well as for de-tailed information on the habitat where the specimens have been collected. References Froeschner, R. C. 1960: Cydnidae of the western hemi-sphere.- Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. Ill: 337-680. Lis, J. A. 1993: On Byrsinus Fieber and Microporus Uhler, two allied cydnid genera (Heteroptera: Cydnidae).-Ann. Upper Siles. Mus., Ent. 4: 79-98. Lis, J. A. 1994: A revision of Oriental burrower bugs (Heteroptera: Cydnidae).- Bytom. 349 pp. 

Amnestus raunoi n. sp. from Iran, the first Old World representative of the New World subfamily Amnestinae (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Cydnidae)

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Amnestus raunoi n. sp. from Iran, the first Old World representative of the New World subfamily Amnestinae (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Cydnidae)

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