B26
Sejanus komabanus
new heteropteran species discovered in the center of the Tokyo Metropolis

The Heteroptera, or true bugs, form one of the major insect groups with respect to the very diverse habitat preferences, including both aquatic and terrestrial species, as well as having a variety of feeding types. The first comprehensive inventory of the Heteroptera at the Komaba Campus of the University of Tokyo, an urban green space in the center of the Tokyo Metropolis, was conducted in 2013-2014. A total of 115 species in 29 families of the suborder Heteroptera were identified. Of them, an undescribed species belonging unequivocally to genus Sejanus Distant of the family Miridae was discovered from flowers of Mallotus japonicus (L.f.) Müll. Arg. (Euphorbiaceae). Accordingly, the new one was originally described as Sejanus komabanus Yasunaga, Ishikawa et Ito, 2013, which was named after the type locality, the Komaba Campus, and occurred in mid to late June (probably a univoltine life cycle). Moreover, the Komaba Campus had a high species richness compared with other urbanized and suburbanized localities in Tokyo, and was found to show a substantial difference in heteropteran species compositions, despite being close to the other localities surrounded by highly urbanized zones in central Tokyo. (Tadashi Ishikawa)

References

Ishikawa, T. et al. (2015) Inventory of the Heteroptera (Insecta: Hemiptera) in Komaba Campus of the University of Tokyo, a highly urbanized area in Japan. Biodiversity Data Journal 3: e4981. DOI: 10.3897/BDJ.3.e4981

Yasunaga, T. et al. (2013) Two new species of the plant bug genus Sejanus Distant from Japan (Heteroptera: Miridae: Phylinae: Leucophoropterini), inhabiting urbanized environments or gardens. Tijdschrift voor Entomologie 156: 151–160.