Praetextatus Distant, 1901

Ahmad, Imtiaz & Zahid, Muhammad, 2006, Redescription Of The Caystrine Genus Praetextatus Distant Along With Its Type Species P. Typicus Distant (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae) With Referance To Their Unknown Characters Of Metathoracic Scent Auricle And Genitalia And Key To Its Known Species And Their Relationships, Int. J. Biol. Biotech. 3, No. 1, pp. 1-5 : 1-2

Praetextatus Distant

Praetextatus Distant 1901: 583 ; 1902: 134; Kirkaldy1909: 208; Hsiao et al. 1977: 100, 155; Ahmad and Afzal 1979: 2; Ahmad and Kamaluddin 1989: 170, 174,180 Praetestatus Gross 1975: 220

Body oblongate; head broader than long, lateral margins laminate, angulate in front of eyes, distinctly sinuate, paraclypei longer than clypeus but not distinctly enclosing the latter; antennae with basal segment shorter than head apex, second segment shorter than third, fifth longest; labium distinctly reaching mesocoxae; pronotum with lateral margins sub straight, anterior angles sub acute, anterior margin medially concave or v-shaped, humeral angles prominent, posterior margin medially weakly or distinctly concave; scutellum with apical margin sub rounded, much shorter than corium; meso- and metasterna medially obscurely furrowed; metathoracic scent auricle transversely thumb-like, limited to one third distance of well developed evaporatoria; abdomen somewhat ovate, with sides more or less parallel, posteriorly narrowed and somewhat rounded.

Female genitalia: Ninth paratergites only slightly passing beyond fused posterior margins of eight paratergites; first gonocoxae overlapping each other, with posterior margins convex.

Type species: P. typicus Distant 1901

Comparative note: Praetextatus is most closely related to valescus in having metathoracic scent auricles somewhat reduced but can easily be separated from the same in having posterior margin of ninth paratergites only slightly passing beyond fused posterior margins of eighth paratergites in contrast to well passing beyond in the species of Valescus .

Key to the species

1. Body dark brown, much longer (13.0 mm) than chinensis in length, anteocular region about one third longer than reminder of head, paraclypei distinctly produced in front of clypeus, anterior margin of pronotum boat-shaped, humeral angles round, scutellum with apical process short and broad, membrane of hemelytra hardly reaching posterior margin of abdomen beyond in the species of Valescus .. .....(Burma:Myanmar and Taiwan)…… P. typicus - Body light coloured, much shorter (9.0-10.5 mm) than typicus in length, anteocular region equal to remainder of head, paraclypei only slightly produced in front of clypeus, anterior margin of pronotum almost v-shaped, humeral angles subacute, scutellum with apical process much long and narrow, membrane of hemelytra distinctly reaching beyond posterior margin of abdomen…(China: Hainan, Hunan, Sichuan and Zhejiang) ……….… P. chinensis