A new species of Paraneella Carvalho, 1954 (Heteroptera: Miridae) from México

MINGUETTI E.; MONTEMAYOR, SARA I.; DELLAPÉ, PABLO M.

La Plata

Encuentro; Sixth Quadrennial Meeting of the International Heteropterists? Society; 2018

The Miridae, commonly called plant bugs, are the most species-rich family of Heteroptera and one of the 20 most diverse family of insects, with more than 11.130 described species, or about 25% of the true bugs. Plant bugs are found in most zoogeographic regions of the world, in the Neotropics there are approximately 561 genera and 3400 species. The family is currently divided in seven subfamilies. Among them, the Brycorinae, representing the fourth-largest subfamily of the Miridae, are a highly diverse group in terms of feeding habits, external morphology and thoracic, pretarsal and genitalic structures, that comprise 200 genera worldwide within five tribes. Comparatively little taxonomic attention has been focused in this subfamily in the last 50 years; most of the recent taxonomic wok consist of isolated descriptions of species and genera or regional treatments of Asian and Australian fauna. The Eccritotarsini is the largest tribe and are particularly diverse in the Neotropical Region, where 70 genera and 452 species are known. Its species are recognized by the swollen femoral trichobothrial bases, the fleshypulvilli attached to the inner surface of the claw, the asymmetrical parempodia, the dilated tarsi, the greatly reduced metathoracic scent gland opening, the single closed membranal cell, and the strongly developed male genitalia. The monotypic genus Paraneella Carvalho 1954 is related with the genera Neella Reuter 1908 and Neoneella Costa Lima 1942. It is characterized by the structure and length of the first antennal segment, the shape and pubescence of posterior femora, and the very small and flat scutellum. The only species described until now, Paraneella amazonica, is based on a single female from Itacoai River in Amazonas (Brazil). During the study of specimens from Instituto de Biología de la UNAM, within the context of the doctoral thesis project of the first author, a new species of Paraneella from Mexico was identified, that is herein described including morphological and male and female genitalic characters.