Skip to main content

Yunnan harlequin bug (Dindymus albonotum) named for yellowish-white thorax

NEWS - Researchers report a new species, Dindymus albonotum, from specimens collected from a forest near the Wanmu tea plantation in Puer, Yunnan, China. The species has a body shape and coloration similar to Dindymus brevis Blöte (1931) and Dindymus flavinotum Stehlík (2013), but is easily distinguished.

Yunnan harlequin bug (Dindymus albonotum) named for yellowish-white thorax

The researchers from Nanning Normal University in Nanning, the Chinese Academy of Forestry in Beijing, China Agricultural University in Beijing and the Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences in Haikou named the species in reference to the yellow posterior lobe of the pronotum. The Latin noun albonotum means "yellowish-white thorax".

Yunnan harlequin bug (D. albonotum) is red with black and milky white markings. The antennae are black and the base of the first segment is red. The labia are blackish brown and the first segment is red. The posterior pronotal lobe is milky white.

The leura and sterna of the thorax are black, the posterior edge of the pleura and the posterior edge of the acetabula are milky white. The legs are black, the apical part of the femur and the base of the tibia are red. The abdomen is black. The posterior edge of the fifth abdominal sternum, the sixth and seventh abdominal sternites are milky white.

The body is oval. The pronotum and forewings are widened transversely. The head is less than wide, the eyes protrude laterally. The anterior and posterior lobes of the pronotum are narrow. The anterior edge of the pronotum is not wider than the head, and is less than 1/2 the distance between the lateral pronotal angles.

The posterior border of the anterior pronotal lobe is convex anteriorly. The posterior pronotal lobe is rarely perforated. The costal border of the corium is widened laterally and is smooth, the corium (except the costal border) and clavus are tightly perforated.

The body length is 14.78 mm and the maximum width of the abdomen is 7.13 mm. The head is 2.78 mm long and 2.61 mm wide. The length of the synlipsis is 1.39 mm. The length of the antennal segments I-IV = 4.35, 2.61, 1.91, 3.48 mm. Length of labial segment I-IV = 2.52, 2.52, 2.09, 1.22 mm.

Length of pronotum 2.86 mm. Width of pronotum 4.96 mm. Length of anterior pronotal lobe 1.22 mm. Length of posterior pronotal lobe 1.74 mm. Length of scutellum 2.73 mm and length of hemelytron 12.17 mm.

Until today Pyrrhocoridae (Hemiptera, Heteroptera, Pyrrhocoroidea) has 525 species in 49 genera spread throughout the world. Dindymus was first officially described by Carl Stål (1833-1878) in 1861 in Ofvers, VetensAkad, Förh, Stockholm, 18. This genus has five synonyms, four subgenera and incertae sedis with more than 45 species.

Original research

Zhao P, Ou M, Cao L, Liu H, Wang J (2024). One new species and two new records of Pyrrhocoridae (Hemiptera, Heteroptera) from China. ZooKeys 1210: 273-286, DOI:10.3897/zookeys.1210.125457

Popular Posts

Kunu buti (Mesosphaerum suaveolens)

Kunu buti ( Mesosphaerum suaveolens ) is a species of plant in the Lamiaceae family. It is an erect, herbaceous annual, growing up to 1.5 meters tall. Its cylindrical, rough, brown or green stem is hairy and white. It grows on forest floors, bushes, agricultural fields, and roadsides. Its roots are fibrous and brownish-yellow. M. suaveolens has single, opposite leaves, stalks 2-5 cm long and hairy. The leaf blades are green, hairy, oval, with pointed tips, blunt bases, serrated edges, up to 6 cm long, up to 5 cm wide, and pinnate veins. The flowers are compound, axillary, in clusters, perfect, and bisexual. The petals are attached, forming a tube, each tip elongated like a spine, soft, 3-10 mm long, and green. The corolla is attached, asymmetrically detached, 1-2 cm long, and purple. The fruit is single, hard, capsule-shaped, hairy on the surface, and green or brown in color. The seeds are round, small and blackish brown in color. TAXON Kingdom: Plantae Phylum: Tracheophyta Subphyl...

Fern tree (Filicium decipiens)

Kerai payung or fern tree ( Filicium decipiens ) is a plant species in Sapindaceae, a tree that is always green with thick and round canopies such as umbrellas, 5-10 m high but old specimens in nature can exceed 25 m, upright stems, gray bark ash to reddish brown, smooth when young but rough and cracked when mature. F. decipiens has large, fern-like and conspicuous leaves, up to 40 cm long and made of elongated longitudinal, glossy green leaflets arranged in pairs. Leaves on stems with a length of 3-10 cm, alternating, imparipinnat, 15-30 cm long and 12-15 cm wide. Winged rachis with 6-12 pairs of opposite or sub-opposite leaflets, sessile, oblong-lanceolate with full margins and slightly wavy, 6-12 cm long and 1-3 cm wide, coriaceous, dark green and glossy above. Flowers grow on stems with a length of 7 cm as panicles for lengths of 15-30 cm which carry many small, unisexual flowers and hermaphrodites with a diameter of 0.4-0.6 cm. Pentaparted petals with imbricate ovate lobes, fi...

Cockspur coral tree (Erythrina crista-galli)

Velvet coral tree or cockspur coral tree ( Erythrina crista-galli ) is a species of plant in the Fabaceae family. It is a small tree, 5-8 meters tall, with a trunk circumference of about 50 cm, irregular branches, light wood, and fissured, soft, and light brown bark. The taproot is white. The leaves are ovate, with three strands, dark green and glossy on the upper surface, and pale green on the underside. The central lobe is up to 17 cm long and up to 11 cm wide. The left and right lobes are up to 15 cm long and up to 10 cm wide. The flowers are red, arranged in racemes, at the apex, pentameric, complete, and bilaterally symmetrical. The flowers are up to 6 cm long and 4 cm wide. The pods are long, containing about 8 seeds, green when young and turning brown as they mature. The seeds are ovate, flat, and brown. It grows well in lowlands up to an elevation of 1,500 meters, with an annual rainfall of 800-1,500 mm/year, and a temperature of 20-32°C. It thrives in well-drained soils, but...