The flower bug genus Orius Wolff, 1811 (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Anthocoridae: Oriini) of Thailand

ABSTRACT

The flower bug genus Orius Wolff, 1811 (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Anthocoridae: Oriini) in Thailand is reviewed. Eleven valid species are recognised; seven of them are described as new to science: Orius (O.) sakaerat, O. (O.) taksini, O. (O.) tomokunii, O. (O.) filiferus, O. (O.) machaerus, O. (O.) inthanonus and O. (Trichorius) crassus. Orius (Heterorius) dravidiensis Muraleedharan, 1977, which has been known from India, is recorded from Thailand for the first time, and is correctly placed in the subgenus Dimorphella Reuter, 1884. The subgenus Paraorius Yasunaga and Miyamoto, 1993 is proposed as a synonym of Dimorphella. Diagnoses, digital habitus images, scanning electron micrographs and illustrations of diagnostic features including both male and female genitalia are provided. Keys to the Thai species are offered to facilitate identification. Biology of Thai species is also discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Orius
• new species
• new record
• taxonomy
• biology
• Thailand

Acknowledgements

We wish to express our cordial thanks to Dr. P. Joompot and Assoc. Prof. P. Ampol (Rajamangala University of Technology Suvarnabhumi, Ayutthaya), Dr. M. Rut (Suranaree University of Technology, Nakhon Ratchasima), Mr. K. Muangnil (Kyusei Nature Farming Center, Saraburi) and Ms. R. Nana-Siri (Prawet, Bangkok) for kind assistance in the field and permitting the use of facilities. Sincere thanks to Dr. M.D. Webb (BMNH), Dr. D. Pluot-Sigwalt (Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris) and Dr. T.J. Henry (US National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution) for their help and hospitality during the first author’s visits to London, Paris and Washington, DC, and for permission to access material. We are grateful to Dr. M. Tomokuni (NSMT), Dr. C.R. Ballal (National Bureau of Agriculturally Important Insects, Bangalore, India), Dr. Y. Nakatani (National Institute for Agro-Environmental Sciences, Ibaraki, Japan) and Mr. S. Nagashima (Itami City Museum of Insect, Hyôgo, Japan) for loaning or providing materials. The first author also thanks Prof. T. Hirowatari (Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan) for his continued encouragement and advice. We are indebted to Dr. D.R. Horton and Ms. T.M. Lewis (United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, USA) for reviewing an earlier version of this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B) from JSPS (Nos. 20780043 and 25840150) to the first author.