Maternal Care under Large Clutches with Small Eggs: The Evolution of Life History Traits in Shield Bugs.

AbstractPatterns in the correlated evolution of parental care and life history traits are long established but controversial. Although parental care is related to large egg size in many taxa, conflicting results have also been reported. To test the evolutionary relationships between parental care and life history traits, we performed phylogenetic comparative analyses using shield bugs (Heteroptera: Acanthosomatidae), in which maternal guarding of eggs and young has repeatedly evolved.

New genera and new species of remarkably large-sized or uniquely-shaped mirine plant bugs from Taiwan (Heteroptera: Miridae: Mirinae).

New taxa are proposed and described for several large-sized or uniquely-shaped mirine plant bugs from Taiwan or the northeastern Oriental Region. Two new genera, Rhopalimiris n. gen.

A revision of Scutellera (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Scutelleridae).

The genus Scutellera Lamarck, 1801 (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Scutelleridae: Scutellerinae: Scutellerini) is revised. Three species are recognized: Scutellera nepalensis (Westwood, 1837), with two subspecies, S. nepalensis nepalensis and S.

Zhengica cornuta gen. nov., sp. nov., a new genus and species of Pentatomidae from East Asia (Hemiptera: Heteroptera).

Zhengica cornuta gen. nov., sp.

Two mitochondrial genomes of Taiwanese rhinoceros beetles, and (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae).

Two mitochondrial genomes of the dynastine beetles, (Linnaeus, 1758) and (Faldermann, 1835), were assembled high-throughput sequencing (HTS). Each of the mitogenomes has 37 genes, showing standard gene order and annotation as the other insects, except for the transfer genes, presenting tQ-tI-tM order. To examine their phylogenetic positions, 118 public mitogenomes of Scarabaeidae were used to infer a ML tree.

Redefinition of two little known mirine plant bug genera Babacoris and Paramiridius (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Miridae: Mirinae).

A long neglected plant bug genus Babacoris Miyamoto, 1994 (Mirinae: Mirini), proposed for a single Taiwanese species, B. striatus Miyamoto, is redefined and redescribed as a valid genus, based on recent rediscovery of the type species from Hengchun, Taiwan; the neotype is designated for B. striatus.

A revision of Graptophara (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Scutelleridae).

The Indomalayan genus Graptophara Stål, 1865 (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Scutelleridae: Scutellerinae) is redescribed and revised, and its systematic position is discussed. Two species, G. reynaudii (Guérin-Méneville, 1834) (the type species, distributed in the Sundaic Region) and G.

The genus Alphocoris in the Indomalaya (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Scutelleridae).

The Indomalayan species of the genus Alphocoris Germar, 1839 (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Scutelleridae: Odontotarsinae: Odontotarsini) are revised. Three species, A. caudatus Rédei, Tsai Jindra, sp.

Taxonomic review of the plant bug subfamily Isometopinae for Taiwan and Japanese Southwest Islands, with descriptions of new taxa (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Miridae: Isometopinae).

The fauna of plant bug subfamily Isometopinae in Taiwan and Japanese Southwest (Nansei) Islands is reviewed. Twenty-five species are recognized, including two new species of Myiomma Puton, M. austroccidens sp.

Lectotype designations and taxonomic corrections on Neotropical Scutelleridae described by G. Breddin (Hemiptera: Heteroptera).

Lectotypes are designated and documented for the following species and infrasubspecific taxa: Dystus villosus Breddin, 1904; Lobothyreus breviceps Breddin, 1914; Pachycoris torridus (Scopoli, 1772) var. laetissimus Breddin, 1906 (originally proposed as var. laetissima); P.

Maternal care in Acanthosomatinae (Insecta: Heteroptera: Acanthosomatidae)--correlated evolution with morphological change.

Background: Maternal care (egg-nymph guarding behavior) has been recorded in some genera of Acanthosomatidae. However, the origin of the maternal care in the family has remained unclear due to the lack of phylogenetic hypotheses. Another reproductive mode is found in non-caring species whose females smear their eggs before leaving them.

Redefinition of Acanthosoma and taxonomic corrections to its included species (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Acanthosomatidae).

The genus level diagnostic characters of Acanthosoma Curtis, 1824, Anaxandra Stål, 1876, and Sastragala Amyot & Serville, 1843 (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Acanthosomatidae) are discussed. The synonymy of Acanthosoma and Anaxandra proposed by Kumar (1974) is supported. Acanthosoma and Sastragala are redefined and recognized as valid genera.

The identity of Acanthosoma vicinum, with proposal of a new genus and species level synonymy (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Acanthosomatidae).

The identity of Acanthosoma vicinum Uhler, 1861 (type species of the monotypic genus Grossaria Kumar, 1974) is clarified based on reexamination of the lectotype. The following new combination and new subjective synonymies are proposed: Elasmucha Stål, 1864 = Grossaria Kumar, 1974, syn. nov.

The soapberry bug, Jadera haematoloma (Insecta, Hemiptera, Rhopalidae): First Asian record, with a review of bionomics.

The soapberry bug, Jadera haematoloma (Herrich-Schäffer, 1847) (Insecta: Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Rhopalidae: Serinethinae), a species native in tropical and subtropical regions of the New World and accidentally introduced to Hawaii, is reported for the first time from Asia (Taiwan). This record represents the first occurrence of the species in Asia. Stable populations composed of hundreds of specimens were found in seven localities of Kaohsiung City and one locality in Tainan City, and a single specimen was observed in Chiayi County.