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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Beltsville, Maryland (BARC) » Beltsville Agricultural Research Center » Systematic Entomology Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #379998
Research Project: Systematics of Hemiptera and Related Groups: Plant Pests, Predators and Disease Vectors

Location: Systematic Entomology Laboratory

Title: The Isometopinae (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Miridae) of India and Sri Lanka: A review of the subfamily, with descriptions of six new species

Author
item YESHWANTH, H. - University College - India
item CHEROT, FREDERICK - Walloon Agricultural Research Center
item Henry, Thomas

Submitted to: Zootaxa
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/17/2020
Publication Date: 1/7/2021
Citation: Yeshwanth, H.M., Cherot, F., Henry, T.J. 2021. The Isometopinae (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Miridae) of India and Sri Lanka: A review of the subfamily, with descriptions of six new species. Zootaxa. 4903(2):151-193. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4903.2.1.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4903.2.1

Interpretive Summary: Plant bugs represent the largest family of true bugs and include numerous agriculturally important species. Many are serious crop pests, causing millions of dollars in losses in the United States annually. Many others, however, are predators on various arthropods, making them potentially important in biological control. This paper treats a group of plant bugs, often called jumping tree bugs, that prey almost exclusively on scale insects, which are serious pests of fruit crops and ornamental shrubs and trees. In this paper, nine genera and 17 species are recorded and diagnosed from India and Sri Lanka, including six species new to science and three new Indian country records. Keys to genera and all species and illustrations of the adults and male and female genitalia are provided to aid in recognition of these potentially important predatory bugs. This article will be of broad interest to a wide range of researchers and regulatory personnel around the world working on insect pest management and biocontrol.

Technical Abstract: The subfamily Isometopinae (Insecta: Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Miridae) from India and Sri Lanka is reviewed. Nine genera and seventeen species are recorded from both countries, keyed, illustrated, and diagnosed. Six species are described as new: Astroscopometopus hesarghattaensis, n. sp., Isometopus webbi, n. sp. and Isometopus wolskii, n. sp., Isometopidea viraktamathi, n. sp., Myiomma belavadii, n. sp., and Myiomma ramamurthyi, n. sp. Alcecoris periscopus McAtee and Malloch 1924, Isometopus yoshizawai Yasunaga & Duwal, 2006 and Paloniella parallela Yasunaga & Hayashi, 2002 are reported for the first time from India.