Skip to main content Skip to main navigation menu Skip to site footer
Responsive image
Issue: Vol. 5032 No. 2: 7 Sept. 2021
Type: Article
Published: 2021-09-07
DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5032.2.9
Page range: 283-289
Abstract views: 305
PDF downloaded: 27

Taxonomic position of Heissothignus and review of the species of Meschia (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Meschiidae)

Agriculture Victoria, AgriBio, 5 Ring Road, Bundoora, Victoria 3083, Australia. La Trobe University, Bundoora, Victoria 3083, Australia.
University of Agricultural Sciences, Bengaluru, India.
Department of Conservation Biology, Georgikon Campus, Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Science, Keszthely, Hungary.
Hemiptera Heterogastridae Meschiidae Heissothignus Meschia New Guinea India synonymy family placement colour variation

Abstract

The New Guinean genus Heissothignus Slater & Brailovsky, 2006 (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Meschiidae) possesses several morphological characters unique to family Meschiidae but not occurring in Heterogastridae, confirming its placement within the family Meschiidae. A key to the genera of the family Meschiidae is presented. The two species of the genus Meschia Distant, 1910 recorded from the Indian subcontinent are reviewed, and the following new synonymy is proposed: M. pugnax Distant, 1910 = M. quadrimaculata Distant, 1910, syn. nov. A revised key to the species of Meschia is provided. New country and state records are provided for M. pugnax (India: Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Meghalaya, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Uttarakhand), Meschia barrowensis Malipatil, 2014 (Australia: New South Wales) and Meschia zoui Gao & Malipatil, 2019 (Thailand).

 

References

  1. Brailovsky, H. (2011) Two new species of Heissothignus from New Guinea (Heteroptera: Lygaeoidea: Heterogastridae). Zootaxa, 3130 (1), 63–68. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.3130.1.4
    Distant, W.E. (1910) The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon & Burma. Rhynchota Vol. V. Heteroptera: Appendix. Taylor and Francis, London, 362 pp.
    Gao, C. & Malipatil, M.B. (2019) Meschia zoui sp. nov., first representative of the family Meschiidae from China (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Lygaeoidea), Zootaxa, 4603 (1), 172–182. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4603.1.9
    Malipatil, M.B. (2014) Meschiidae, a new family of Lygaeoidea (Hemiptera: Heteroptera) from India and Australia, with descriptions of a new genus and two new species. Zootaxa, 3815 (2), 233–248. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.3815.2.4
    Mukhopadhyay, A. (1988) Taxonomic study of Lygaeidae (Heteroptera: Insecta) from West Bengal (India). Records of the Zoological Survey of India. Miscellaneous Publication Occasional Paper No.107. Zoological Survey of India, Calcutta, 72 pp.
    Schuh, R.T. & Slater, J.A. (1995) True bugs of the world (Hemiptera: Heteroptera). Classification and Natural History. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York, 336 pp.
    Schuh, R.T. & Weirauch, C. (2020) True bugs of the world (Hemiptera: Heteroptera). Classification and Natural History. 2nd Edition. Monograph Series Vol. 8. Siri Scientific Press, Manchester, 800 pp.
    Scudder, G.G.E. (1957) A revision of the genus Meschia Distant (Hemiptera: Lygaeidae) with a new species from south Queensland. Proceedings of the Royal Society of the Queensland, 67 (5), 25–28.
    Scudder, G.G.E. (1962) New Heterogastrinae (Hemiptera) with a key to the genera of the world. Opuscula Entomologica, 27, 117–127.
    Slater, J.A. & Brailovsky, H. (2006) A new genus and three new species of Lygaeoidea from New Guinea (Heteroptera, Lygaeoidea), In: Rabitsch, W. (Ed.), Hug the bug—For love of true bugs. Festschrift zum 70. Geburtstag von Ernst Heiss. Denisia, 19, pp. 647–652.