Review of the tribe Lethaeini Stål (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Lygaeoidea: Rhyparochromidae) from China, with a key to Chinese genera and species
Author
Li, Junlan
Author
Gao, Cuiqing
Author
Bu, Wenjun
text
Zootaxa
2011
3126
28
38
journal article
45821
10.5281/zenodo.204798
3d2dd59a-4552-4ebb-bee4-4d11bf4d5682
1175-5326
204798
Lethaeus
Dallas, 1852
New Record for
China
Lethaeus
Dallas, 1852
: 557
;
Slater, 1964
: 825
–834;
Slater & O’Donnell, 1995
: 98
;
Péricart, 2001
: 158
–159.
Diagnosis.
Pronotum lacking a collar–like area; posterior margin of abdominal segment VII of male without three pointed protuberances; hind femora of male without spine and protuberance; sperm reservoir lacking holding sclerites, sleeve reduced to a small spur near the base of conjunctival seminal duct.
Notes.
Slater (1999)
noted that “generic limits in the eastern hemisphere are, in part, unsatisfactory. This is especially true of a complex of medium to large-sized species that traditionally included
Lethaeus
and its allies.”
Chinese
Lethaeus
Dallas
is very similar to
Neoletheaus
Distant, but it can be distinguished by diagnosis as above mentioned.
About 32 species have been known in this genus (
Slater, 1964
;
Slater & O’Donnell, 1995
), all occurring in the eastern hemisphere (Asia, Africa, and Europe). It was reported from
China
for the first time.