Plagiognathus reinhardi Johnston, 1935

SCHUH, RANDALL T., 2001, Revision Of New World Plagiognathus Fieber, With Comments On The Palearctic Fauna And The Description Of A New Genus (Heteroptera: Miridae: Phylinae), Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2001 (266), pp. 1-267 : 255

Plagiognathus reinhardi Johnston Figure 40

Plagiognathus reinhardi Johnston, 1935: 16 (n. sp.).

This small red species, which breeds on Crataegus spp. in the southern United States, has been placed in Plagiognathus on the basis of superficial appearance. Several features mitigate against such placement, however. Notable among these are the antennae, in which the second antennal segment is sexually dimorphic, being cylindrical and mod­ erately enlarged in the male and more slender and tapered toward the base in the female. This type of antennal conformation occurs in no species that I have placed in Plagiognathus . Furthermore, the vesica in the male, although having two apical projections, is unlike that of any other species that I have placed in Plagiognathus . For these reasons, I am treating reinhardi as incertae sedis.

Figures

Fig. 40. Male genitalia of species transferred out of Plagiognathus and species incertae sedis.