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New records of Meschia pugnax (Heteroptera: Meschiidae) and stethoconus praefectus (Heteroptera: Miridae): predatory deraeocorinae plant bug associated with tingidae bugs, Pakistan

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Abstract

So far, little work has been done on the economically significant families of terrestrial heteroptera in Pakistan's Pothwar region. The taxonomy of the Pentatomidae family of the suborder Heteroptera was primarily the subject of previous work. In the present research, the author conducted surveys of different heteropteran families from different altitudes for the exploration of fauna. Meschia pugnax, a phytophagous species, belonging to newly recorded family Meschiidae and an obligatory predator, Stethoconus praefectus belonging to plant bug family Miridae have been recorded for the first time from Pakistan. Urentius hystricellus, pest of Brinjal crop, belonging to family Tingidae has been recorded as new country record. Meschia pugnax Distant and Stethoconus praefectus Distant were first recorded from the Pothwar area of Pakistan during the collection of terrestrial heteroptera. An obligatory predator, Stethoconus praefectus, is found to predate the species of lace bugs Urentius hystricellus Richter and Corythauma ayyari Drake. Lace bug species, Urentius hystricellus is reported as a new Pakistani record. Collected specimens have been sent to the Biosystematics Laboratory, Department of Entomology, PMAS-Arid Agriculture University, Rawalpindi. This paper has given the distribution of reported species along with body measurements and illustrations. A lot of work must be done to investigate the fauna of different heteropteran families, as the work done in previous years is scarce.

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Data Availability

All the supporting data for the experiment is available in the manuscript.

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Acknowledgement

We would be very grateful to Dr. H. M. Yeshwanth for assisting us in identification of the S. praefectus, a species of family Miridae and Dr. Eric Guilbert for the identification of lace bug species. I am also indebted to Pakistan Museum of Natural History (PMNH), Islamabad for providing us micro photographic facilities.

Funding

Study expenditures and additional charges were funded under the Indigenous Ph.D., Phase II and Batch IV Ph.D. (PIN No: 417–29888-2AG4-027) by the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Entomology, Insect Biosystematics & Ecology group, PMAS-Arid Agriculture University, Rawalpindi, Pakistan

    Zuhaib Ahmad

  2. Department of Entomology, PMAS-Arid Agriculture University, Rawalpindi, Pakistan

    Muhammad Naeem

  3. Department of Wild Life Management, PMAS-Arid Agriculture University, Rawalpindi, Pakistan

    Tariq Mahmood

  4. Department of Entomology, Assistant Professor, The University of Haripur, KPK, Pakistan

    Rashid Azad

Authors
  1. Zuhaib Ahmad
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  2. Muhammad Naeem
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  3. Tariq Mahmood
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  4. Rashid Azad
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Contributions

ZA: conducted the experiment; MN: conceived the experiment; RA: analyzed the data and helped in manuscript drafting.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Zuhaib Ahmad.

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The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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Ahmad, Z., Naeem, M., Mahmood, T. et al. New records of Meschia pugnax (Heteroptera: Meschiidae) and stethoconus praefectus (Heteroptera: Miridae): predatory deraeocorinae plant bug associated with tingidae bugs, Pakistan. Int J Trop Insect Sci 41, 2841–2850 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42690-021-00466-y

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