Alloiothucha Drake 1927

Genus Alloiothucha Drake, 1927

Alloiothucha Drake, 1927: 58. Type species by original designation: Alloiothucha philippinensis Drake, 1927.

Cetiothucha Drake & Ruhoff, 1965b: 285. Type species by original designation: Cetiothucha physalia Drake & Ruhoff, 1965. New subjective synonym.

Diagnosis. Recognized among other tingid genera by a combination of the following characters: body ovate; maximum width across hemelytra wider than maximum width across paranota; head shorter than its maximum width across compound eyes; antennal segments I separated from each other at their bases; bucculae close to each other at anterior ends; pronotum unicarinate; hood saccular, completely covering head, wider than pronotal disc, extending beyond apex of posterior process; pronotal carina with a single row of areolae; paranotum subvertical, laminate; anterior margins of hemelytra not parallel to each other at rest; apices of hemelytra separated from each other at rest; costal area distinct, wider than subcostal area at widest part of each; subcostal area subvertical, widened apically; discoidal area flat, not expanding beyond middle of hemelytron; Cu (cubital) and R+M (radiomedial) veins distinct; and hypocostal lamina with a single row of areolae throughout its length.

Remarks. The genus Alloiothucha currently comprises four described species: A. artocarpi from Indonesia (Java Island); A. chaera Drake, 1966 from Malaysia (Borneo Island) and the Philippines (Palawan Island); A. necopinata Drake, 1927 from the Philippines (Palawan Island); and A. philippinensis Drake, 1927 from Malaysia (Borneo Island), the Philippines (Luzon Island), and Thailand (Horváth 1926; Drake 1927; Drake 1966; Péricart 1986, 1992; Guilbert & Guidoti 2018). This genus strongly resembles Cetiothucha Drake & Ruhoff, 1965, which comprises two species, namely, C. constanti Guilbert, Pham & Soulier-Perkins, 2018 from Vietnam and C. physalia Drake & Ruhoff, 1965 from Malaysia (Borneo Island), in their morphological characteristics (Drake & Ruhoff 1965a; Guilbert et al. 2018). Moreover, Alloiothucha and Cetiothucha are distinguished from the other tingid genera by the extremely large hood and the relatively narrow paranotum in the original description (cf. Drake 1927; Drake & Ruhoff 1965a). However, Cetiothucha has been described without comparing the former (Drake & Ruhoff 1965a). To the best of our knowledge, no morphological difference including hood and paranotum has been confirmed between both genera, which is confirmed by observations of the photographs or illustrations of the type material of all species of Cetiothucha (C. constanti, Fig. 7; C. physalia, Fig. 8) and Alloiothucha (A. artocarpi, Figs. 1–4; A. philippinensis, Fig. 5; A. necopinata, Fig. 6; A. chaera, Fig. 9). Therefore, we argue that Cetiothucha is a junior synonym of Alloiothucha. Conclusively, Alloiothucha = Cetiothucha syn. nov. now comprises six species: A. artocarpi; A. chaera; A. constanti comb. nov.; A. necopinata; A. philippinensis; and A. physalia comb. nov.

Alloiothucha is readily distinguished from other tingid genera by the following characteristics: hood saccular, completely covering head, wider than pronotal disc, extending beyond apex of posterior process; paranotum subvertical, laminate; and apices of hemelytra separated from each other at rest.