Notes on some toad bugs from China (Hemiptera, Heteroptera, Gelastocoridae)

A peer-reviewed open-access journal ZooKeys 759: 137–147 (2018) Notes on some toad bugs from China (Hemiptera, Heteroptera, Gelastocoridae) doi: 10.3897/zookeys.759.21627 RESEARCH ARTICLE http://zookeys.pensoft.net 137 Launched to accelerate biodiversity research Notes on some toad bugs from China (Hemiptera, Heteroptera, Gelastocoridae) Tong-Yin Xie1,2, Guo-Qing Liu3 1 College of Agriculture, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin 150030, China 2 Key Laboratory of Soybean Biology, in Chinese Ministry of Education, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin 150030, China 3 Institute of Entomology, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300071, China Corresponding author: Guo-Qing Liu () Academic editor: J. Zahniser | Received 14 October 2017 | Accepted 19 April 2018 | Published 22 May 2018 http://zoobank.org/8D9F73B2-5FF8-4B05-B88A-B87E4BE7B267 Citation: Xie T-Y, Liu G-Q (2018) Notes on some toad bugs from China (Hemiptera, Heteroptera, Gelastocoridae). ZooKeys 759: 137–147. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.759.21627 Abstract The three species of Nerthra Say, 1832 (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Gelastocoridae) occurring in China are reviewed. Dorsal habitus photographs of the two species, Nerthra asiatica (Horváth, 1892) and Nerthra indica (Atkinson, 1889), are provided, accompanied by illustrations of male genitalic structures and female ventral aspect of posterior abdominal segments. The male of Nerthra asiatica is recorded and reviewed for the first time. Keywords Hemiptera, Gelastocoridae, Nerthra, China Introduction Toad bugs (Gelastocoridae) are a remarkable group of aquatic bugs (Nepomorpha) which are derived from aquatic ancestors and have become secondarily terrestrial (Hebsgaard et al. 2004). Gelastocoridae contains three recent genera and approximately 103 species distributed worldwide, but much more prevalent in the tropics (Polhemus 1995). It is divided into two subfamilies, Gelastocorinae and Nerthrinae. Recent Gelastocorinae (two genera) are reported in only in America, from southern Canada Copyright Tong-Yin Xie, Guo-Qing Liu. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. 138 Tong-Yin Xie & Guo-Qing Liu / ZooKeys 759: 137–147 (2018) to north Argentina (Štys and Jansson 1988; Chen et al. 2005), but there is one fossil species, Gelastocoris curiosus Poinar & Brown, 2016 described from Burmese amber (Poinar and Brown 2016). The Nerthrinae includes one fossil genus, Cratonerthra Martins-Neto, 2005 with two species (Ruf et al. 2005), and one recent genus, Nerthra Say, 1832, currently including 92 valid recent species, of which nine species occur in south-eastern Asia west of Wallace line, and three species present in China (Kment and Jindra 2008, Xie and Liu 2013, Faúndez and Ashworth 2015). Material and methods The male genitalia were examined in glycerol and illustrated using a Zeiss Discovery V8 microscope. All measurements are given in millimetres (see Table 1). The digital photographs of specimens (Fig. 1A–D) were taken with a Zeiss Discovery V20 camera. All the studied specimens are deposited in the Institute of Entomology, Nankai University (NKUM), Tianjin, China. Systematics Nerthra asiatica (Horváth, 1892) Figs 1A, B; 2A–G Mononyx asiaticus Horváth, 1892: 136. Mononyx grossus Montandon, 1899: 395 (syn. Kiritshenko 1926: 226); Distant 1906: 16; Oshanin 1909: 956; Oshanin 1912: 89; Kiritshenko 1926: 226; Wu 1935: 559. Nerthra asiatica: Todd 1955: 349; Todd 1957: 154; Nieser and Chen 1992: 5; Polhemus 1995: 24; Thirumalai 1998: 192; Bal and Basu 2003: 542; Kment and Jindra 2008: 191; Xie and Liu 2013: 6. Material examined. CHINA: Sichuan Province: 1♂, Mount Emei [峨眉山], 29.58N, 103.41E, 24. IV. 1962, Bai-juan CHEN leg.; 1♀, Ya’an [雅安], 29.98N, 103.01E, 4. VII. 1963, alt. 600–900m, Jiang XIONG leg.; Hubei Province: 1♀, Wufeng Tujia Autonomous County [五峰土家族自治县], 30.20N, 110.67E, 10. VII. 1999, alt. 1000m, Chuan-ren LI leg.; 1♂, National Natural Reserve of Xingdou Mountain [星斗山国家级自然保护区], 30.14N, 109.00E, 30. VII. 1999, alt. 840– 900m, Chuan-ren LI leg.; Xizang (Tibet) Autonomous Region: 1♀, Mêdog county [墨脱县], 29.33N, 95.34E, alt. 800m, VIII. 1984, Tan HE leg. Redescription. Body large size for the genus. Body dorsally brown with scutellum slightly darker than rest (Fig. 1A–B). Ventral surface dark brown, the bases of the middle and hind legs with a few patches of yellowish brown. Head. Apical tubercle absent, lateral and superapical tubercles small, irregular in shape, not sharply pointed. Notes on some toad bugs from China (Hemiptera, Heteroptera, Gelastocoridae) 139 Figure 1. Dorsal habitus of Nerthra spp. A N. asiatica (Horváth) (♂) B N. asiatica (♀) C N. indica (Atkinson) (♂) D N. indica (♀). Thorax. Pronotum widest at transverse furrow, a little narrower than abdomen; lateral margins of pronotum parallel or nearly so, anterior and posterior margin weakly sinuate; surface coarsely granulate. Scutellum elevated, apex slightly lobed, with tumescences at the middle of the lateral margins. Hemelytra not extending to the end of the abdomen, membrane well developed; embolium with the basal half of the lateral 140 Tong-Yin Xie & Guo-Qing Liu / ZooKeys 759: 137–147 (2018) Table 1. Measurements of Nerthra species. Species and sex Body length Body width Head length Head width min max average 12.3 11.6 12.3 11.8 8.2 8.1 8.9 8.5 0.8 0.9 1.2 1.1 4.8 4.6 4.8 4.7 3.3 0.9 1.3 1.2 7.2 7.7 8.2 8.0 min max average min max average 8.7 9.2 9.0 9.6 10.3 9.9 5.9 6.3 6.1 6.6 7.8 7.3 0.4 0.6 0.5 0.4 1.1 0.7 3.9 4.2 4.0 3.9 4.5 4.3 2.3 2.7 2.6 2.4 3.1 2.9 6.1 6.5 6.3 6.7 7.8 7.5 min max average min max average 7.9 – – 9.2 10.6 9.9 6.0 – – 6.7 8.2 7.45 – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – 5.9 – – 6.8 8.2 7.5 Range Nerthra asiatica Male (N = 1) Female (N = 4) Pronotum Pronotum length width Nerthra indica Male (N = 31) Female (N = 48) Nerthra macrothorax* Male Female * these measurements are from Polhemus and Polhemus 2012 and Todd 1955. margin nearly straight, not expanded laterally at middle. Connexivum greatly expanded laterally in females. Bristles short or moderately long, clavate, slightly curved, bristles in rows and clumps on hemelytra and in clumps on scutellum and pronotum. Abdomen. Abdominal V-IV sternites of male mostly asymmetrical, ninth sternite rather oval, wider than long, not as long as eighth sternite; seventh sternite sternite about half as long as eighth sternite; fifth sternite very short medially (Fig. 2E). In female, abdomen nearly symmetrical. Lobes of ovipositor slightly projecting posteriorly; posterior margin of last visible abdominal sternite triangularly emarginate (Fig. 2F). Distribution. China (Sichuan Province, Hubei Province, Xizang (Tibet) Autonomous Region), India (Todd 1955, Kment and Jindra 2008). Rem (...truncated)