Australian ant-mimetic Miridae (Hemiptera : Heteroptera). I. The Leucophoroptera group of the subfamily Phylinae

Abstract

The authors have seen about 400 species of Australian Miridae in established collections of which only about one-fifth are described. The true number of Australian mirids is believed to be more than twice the number so far collected. Although only five genera and six species of Australian ant-mimetic Miridae have been described, about one-quarter of the Australian species appear to mimic ants. More Australian Phylinae mimic ants than Orthotylinae in contrast to South Africa, where Orthotylinae which mimic ants are proportionately much less common, or South America, where ant-mimetic Phylinae are rare. The subfamilial and tribal classification of the Miridae is currently in a state of flux and the main changes proposed by recent authors are examined in so far as they affect the ant-mimetic forms. The group of Australian ant-mimetic Miridae treated in this paper are phylines and are distinguished here as the Leucophoroptera group. Their ranking either as a tribe or subtribe of the Phylinae or Phylini is left undecided until there is some more stability in the classification of the family. The Leucophoroptera group is shown to contain the described genera Sejanus Distant, 1910, and Leucophoroptera Poppius, 1921, together with four new genera, viz. Aitkenia with type A. latevagans, sp. nov., Blesingia with type B. gularis, sp, nov., Collessicoris with type C. bellissimus, sp. nov., and Porophoroptera with type P. excellens, sp. nov. A key is given to the genera of the Leucophorotpera group and keys to the species of all genera except Porophoroptera and Collessicoris which have but one species each. A description or redescription is given of each of the 6 genera, 39 species and 2 subspecies treated and most species are illustrated. The species and subspecies considered are as follows (in order of treatment):- Sejanus trivinosus, sp. nov., neboissi, sp. nov., ruber, sp. nov., rubricatus, sp. nov., unicolor, sp. nov., unicolor webbi, subsp. nov., howardae, sp. nov., brittoni, sp. nov., palumae, sp. nov., rosei, sp. nov., rosei obscurior, subsp. nov., melaleucae, sp. nov., mcdonaldi, sp. nov., uestaustralianus, sp. nov., tasmaniae, sp. nov., meridionalis, sp. nov., luteoelytratus, sp. nov., leai, sp. nov., femoralis, sp. nov., albisignatur (Knight, 1938), brunneus, sp. nov., occidentalis, sp. nov., intermedius, sp. nov., vividus, sp. nov., fasciatus, sp. nov. Leucophoropfera-cavenda, sp. nov., nitidior, sp. nov., fasciata, sp. nov., macrozonata, sp. nov. Aitkenia-latevagans, sp. nov., monteithi, sp. nov., uptoni, sp. nov., cantrelli, sp. nov., grandis, sp. nov. Blesingia-gularis, sp. nov., fasciatipennis (Poppius, 1921), similis, sp. nov., latezonata, sp. nov., elegans, sp. nov., tamborinei, sp. nov. Porophoroptera excellens, sp. nov.; Collessicoris bellissimus, sp. nov.