First record of the plant bug subfamily Psallopinae (Heteroptera: Miridae) from Thailand, with descriptions of new species and immature forms Tomohide Yasunaga, Kazutaka Yamada & Taksin Artchawakom The plant bug subfamily Psallopinae Schuh is reported from Thailand, or con- tinental Southeast Asia, for the first time. Two new species of the genus Psallops Usinger, 1946, P. fulvioides and P. sakaerat, are described from northeastern Thailand. The detailed habit and immature forms are described for P. fulvioides. The discovery also represents the first record of the immature stages for the subfamily. Habitus images of these new species are provided. Tomohide Yasunaga, JICA-SV, Rajamangala University of Technology Suvarnabhumi, Huntra Campus, 60 Moo 3 Asia R’d, Huntra, Phranakhon- Si-Ayutthaya 13000, Thailand; Research Associate, American Museum of Natural History, New York 10024.
[email protected] Kazutaka Yamada*, Tokushima Prefectural Museum, Bunka-no-Mori Park, Mukôterayama, Hachiman-chô, Tokushima, 770-8070 Japan.
[email protected] Artchawakhom Taksin, Director, Sakaerat Environmental Research Station, Thailand Institute of Scientific and Technological Research (TISTR), Ministry of Science & Technology, Wang Nam Khieo, Nakhon Ratchasima, 30370 Thailand.
[email protected] Introduction Almost nothing is known about the biology of this The Psallopinae form the smallest plant bug sub- small subfamily as most specimens have been collected family within the largest heteropteran family Miri- at light; thus habits and habitats of psallopines remain dae. Only eight extant species in two genera are unknown (Wheeler 2001). Only two Japanese species currently known (seven species in Psallops Usinger, have been collected by sweeping leaves or branches of 1946, from Japan, Saudi Arabia, and South Pacific broad-leaved trees (Yasunaga 1999, 2001).