Neoneella, da Costa Lima, 1942

Mingheti, Eugenia, Montemayor, Sara Itzel & Dellapé, Pablo Matías, 2025, Phylogenetic revision of the Neella-Neoneella complex (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Miridae: Bryocorinae), with description of five new genera, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 204 (2) : -

Neoneella Costa Lima, 1942

( Figs 1E, F, 2G, 3F, G, L, 5A, B, I, P, 6)

Tope species: Neoneella zikani Costa Lima, 1942. By original designation.

Neoneella Costa Lima, 1942: 102–107 (original description); Hsiao, 1946: 385; Carvalho, 1946a: 1–8 (description of new species; key); Carvalho, 1946b: 1–2, 7, 9 (description of a new species); Carvalho, 1952: 57 (catalogue); Carvalho, 1955: 30 (key); Carvalho, 1957: 115–116 (catalogue); Carvalho, 1960: 47–50, 53, 55, 58–59 (description of a new species; key); Schuh, 1976: 9 (citation); Carvalho, 1985a: 571, 579-580 (description of a new species); Carvalho, 1985c: 169, 173–174 (description of a new species); Carvalho and Ferreira, 1995: 472, 481 (key); Carpintero, 1998: 145 (citation); Ferreira et al., 2001: 162 (distribution); Schuh, 2002–13 (online catalogue); Ferreira et al., 2006: 4, 10 (distribution); Coelho, 2008: 14, 18, 25, 103, 117– 118, 150 (key; distribution); Ferreira and Henry, 2011: 2, 12, 20, 36 (key; distribution); Ferreira et al., 2024: 213 (generic key).

Included species: N. argentina Carvalho, 1960

N. bosqi Carvalho, 1946b

N. milzae Carvalho, 1946a

N. minuscula Carvalho, 1985c

N. paranaensis Carvalho, 1946a

N. zikani Costa Lima, 1942

Diagnosis: Orange or reddish; some species with brown to black areas; eyes stylate, directed posteriorly, eye stalk narrowed; posterior margin of head without recumbent setae behind eyes; vertex concave; antennae longer in males; hemelytra with semierect setae (except N. milzae with erect setae); claval commissure more than 2× as long as scutellum length; sexual dimorphism in length and shape of inner margin of cuneus, males with cuneus more developed and its apex ataining posterior margin of membrane, which is reduced, and vein of cell straight, not curved as in females; right projection of subgenital plate asymmetrically bifurcate, ventral to the insertion of parameres and visible from outside of the genital capsule; right paramere with a triangular projection or big tooth on dorsal surface; lef paramere C-shaped with its apex bifurcate in upper view; and phallotheca with bulbous base.

Redescription: Male. TBL 5.23–7.55; BW 2.30–3.95. Female. TBL 5.32–6.66; PBL 5.13–6.37; BW 1.97–2.98. Coloration: Head: orange yellowish to reddish; eyes black, in some specimens with silver areas; antennal segments I–II, brown to black; III, pale yellow or dark brown; IV, blackish. Torax: pronotum unicolorous or bicoloured; collar mesoscutum, scutellum, and pleura orange or reddish. Hemelytron: reddish to brown, in some species yellow or reddish with brown areas in embolium, corium, clavus, and/or cuneus; membrane yellow, brown, or black; veins pale yellow to reddish or brown. Legs: coxae yellow, orange to reddish; femora yellow, orange or brown reddish; tibiae yellow, orange to dark brown; tarsi pale yellow and apex brown; claws brown. Abdomen: yellow, orange to reddish. Surface: Shiny; posterior pronotal lobe evenly punctate; head, collar, pronotum, scutellum, and hemelytra with short, recumbent, or semierect setae; labium with semierect setae; antennal segments with semierect setae, segment I with also some erect setae, in some species scattered erect setae on all segments; veins with very short and recumbent setae; pleura and abdomen with semierect setae, longer than dorsum; coxae, trochanters, and tarsi with short and semierect setae; femora with dorsal setae shorter than ventral setae; tibiae with abundant semierect or erect setae. Structure: Head: at least 2× as wide as long; clypeus not visible from above, rounded in lateral view; frons rounded in lateral view; vertex concave, wider than length of head; eyes large, more than half of head height, stylate, directed posteriorly, upper margin overcoming dorsal margin of head, inner margin straight and outside lateral margins of collar; eye stalk narrowed; posterior margin of head without recumbent setae behind eyes; labrum long; gula very short; antennal segment I wide basally, tapering towards apex; II, straight, thinner than and more than 2× as long as I; III, tapering towards apex, thinner than II; IV, straight and thin. Torax: anterior margin of collar concave and posterior margin straight; calli evident, not connected in central area, ataining or not lateral margins of pronotum; posterior pronotal lobe with shallow lateral depressions before humeral angles, posterior margin straight or sinuate; mesoscutum exposed; scutellum with basal depression. Hemelytron: lateral margins parallel to convex; embolium flat, bent upwards; claval commissure more than 2× as long as scutellum length; anterior half of medial fracture adjacent to R + M vein, posterior half separated from R + M vein; males with apex of cuneus ataining posterior margin of membrane and contacting each other with hemelytra in repose, inner margin concave, membrane reduced, and veins straight, not angled in middle of membrane, and ataining apex of cuneus; females with apex of cuneus not ataining posterior margin of membrane and not contacting each other with hemelytra in repose, membrane well developed, veins angled before middle area of membrane and before apex of cuneus, inner margin convex and posterior margin straight. Legs: profemora widened basally; meso- and metafemora straight; metafemora slightly curved; protibia slightly flatened distally; meso- and metatibiae straight. Male genitalia: Genital capsule shorter than half of abdomen length; genital opening broad, facing dorsally; right wall shorter than lef; dorsal wall well developed or reduced, with projections; ventral wall more developed than dorsal, posterior margin convex; subgenital plate with right projection asymmetrically bifurcate, ventral to paramere insertion, visible from outside of genital capsule. Lef paramere very curved, C-shaped, flat, smaller or larger than right; apical process bifurcate. Right paramere with basal, triangular projection or a big tooth directed dorsally; apical process with sclerotized teeth. Aedeagus small to large; phallotheca sclerotized or with some membranous areas, bulbous basally; seminal duct folded and widened initially, membranous, sclerotized posterior to its distal curvature, at least extending to half of phallotheca; endosoma membranous, sometimes sclerotized basally.

Distribution: Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay ( Fig. 6).

Discussion: Neoneella is recovered as sister-group of Puncticollus gen. nov. ( Fig. 7). Neoneella is strongly supported by 20 synapomorphies. Four are continuous characters: total length (0: 0.672 –0.690), and the relations: antennal fossa length/ eye height (7:0.030), claval commissure length/scutellum length (13: 0.234 –0.242), and aedeagus length/genital capsule length (18: 0.119 –0.133); and five are discrete contradictory synapomorphic characters: eyes anteriorly directed (24:1), without a group of recumbent setae behind posterior margin of eye (32:0), semierect setae on hemelytra (62:1), and cuneus sexually dimorphic (68:1, 70:1); and 11 are discrete synapomorphic characters: vertex concave (31:0), length of antenna, membrane development, and cell length sexually dimorphic (34:1, 72:1, 74:1), medial angle of cell present only in females (76:1), lef wall of genital capsule more developed than right (107:1), processes of subgenital plate of genital capsule only in the right side (113:0) and asymmetrically bifurcate (117:1), right paramere with a triangular projection or large tooth on dorsal surface (121:1), lef paramere C-shaped with apex bifurcate in upper view (134:1), and phallotheca with bulbous base in ventral view (148:1). Te GC frequencies indicate a high support due to low contradictory information ( Fig. 7).

Costa Lima (1942) recognized that Neoneella has similarities with Taumastomiris Kirkaldy in the development of the cuneus and in the length of the labium (long in both genera), and suggested that they could be synonymized. However, the eyes in Taumastomiris are less stylate and, at least in females, the posterior margin of the cuneus is narrow and reaches the posterior margin of the hemelytra, with the membrane veins straight ataining the apex of cuneus.

Proneella also has a sexually dimorphic cuneus, with males having a longer cuneus than females, but it does not extend to the posterior margin of each hemelytron and does not contact the other at rest, and the membrane is not reduced with the vein roundly angled in the central area.