A revision of the species of Australian and New Guinea shield bugs fromerly placed in the genera Poecilometis Dallas and Eumecopus Dallas (Heteroptera : Pentatomidae), with description of new species and selection of lectotypes

Abstract

The status of two genera of Australian Pentatomidae, Poecilometis Dallas and Eumecopus Dallas, is discussed, and the two genera provisionally amalgamated on evidence from external morphology and the structure of the aedeagus of the male. The name Poecilometis is adopted for the taxon. The species of Poecilometis as it is now understood are keyed and a complete description or redescription given of each, with figures of the dorsal aspect and male and female external genitalia (where both sexes were available). The genus is considered to contain 38 species and seven subspecies. Twelve new species (extraneus, papuensis, callosus, monteithi, cooki, griseicolor, mellicolor, parilis, lungloensis, politus, macromaculatus, and darwini), and three new subspecies (borealis obesus, darwini plenicolor, and nigriventris decoratus), are described. The following names are shown to be previously unrecognized junior synonyms of earlier names at specific and subspecific level: binotatus Walker (of alienus Walker); stigmaticus Van Duzee 1905, edwardsi Van Duzee, and elligticus Bergroth (of strigntus Westwood); rufescens Westwood (of lineatus Westwood); uniformis Schouteden (of gravis Fabricius); mundus Walker (of eximius Stål); cognatus Walker and vittiventris Stål (of apicalis Westwood); moseleyi Distant (of punctiventris Stål); eyrei Distant (of fuscescens Stål); adversidens Bergroth (of acanthopygius Stål). The following specific names are junior synonyms of earlier names but represent a different subspecies from that of the nominate form: conspersus Walker and abdominalis Distant (of apicalis Westwood); ynigrum Bergroth (of patruelis Stål); superbus Distant (of nigriventris Dallas). The following misidentifications in literature have been corrected: gravis Van Duzee, 1905, non Westwood (= strigatus Westwood); strigatus Van Duzee, 1905, non Westwood (= cooki, sp.nov); rufescens Van Duzee, 1905, non Westwood (= gravis Fabricius); australasiae Distant, 1899, non Donovan (= patruelis Stål); armatus Distant, 1899, in part non Fabricius (= calidus Walker). Lectotypes are selected for Poecilometis elligticus Bergroth, Poecilometis spenceri Bergroth, Eumecopus ynigrum Bergroth, Eumecopus acanthopygius Stål, and Eumecopus horni Bergroth. Poecilometis scutellatus Distant is a synonym of Theseus modestus (Stål 1865), and Theseus distanti is proposed as a new name for Theseus scutellatus Distant, 1910, now a secondary junior homonym of Theseus scutellatus (Distant 1899).

Finally a discussion, with figures, is presented of the structure of the aedeagus in those species of which there were sufficient specimens available to risk dissection. These are compared with the aedeagus of one species of each of two related genera, Alcaeus varicornis (Westwood) and Theseus modestus (Stål). It is shown that all three genera are distinctive in that the sperm duct is not elongated into a terminal vesica, a character reminiscent of pentatomid bugs of the subfamily Asopinae. The species in Poecilometis appear to belong to several series, each perhaps a distinct genus, but the division indicated would differ from the traditional one. It is not considered practicable to adopt any new division of the genus until the aedeagi of a greater number of species of Poecilometis can be examined.