Translation of Spinola's 1852 original description

    Pentatoma variegated grey; elevated margin of elytra and meian longitudinal line of scutellum whitish.

    Dimensions. Length of body 5.5 lines.  Width at the height of the lateral angles of the thorax 3 lines, the same toward the middle of the abdomen, 3 lines. -- Forms. As in the preceeding [Pentatoma apicicorne].  Head proportionately wider.  Tylus [frente] not narrowed forward, somewhat shorter than the juga; these rounded separately.  Anterior margin nearly trilobed.  Dorsum of prothorax a transverse and not regular oval, emarginated in an arc of a curve in front and so the vertices of the contour (corresponding to the vertices of the lateral angles in the species whose prothorax is hexagonal) are closer to the posterior than the anterior margin.  Surface uniformly convex, imperceptibly contracted and inclined toward the front.  Top of body quite lustrous but strongly and distinctly punctate, as much so beneath as above.  Spaces surrounding the odiferous ostioles dull and so strongly punctate as the rest of the breast.  First ventral plate mutilated.  Abdominal stigmates rounded, surrounded by a smooth circle ... [apparently part of description omitted] ... [something plural] ... protruding from the anterior tibiae, costiform and similar to those of the other pairs.  -- Colors. Antennae, body and legs testaceous.  Discoidal side of the elytra brown.  Lateral borders of the thorax and of the scutellum, a median line of latter, a spot near each one of the humeral angles [? in error - basal angles of scutellum?], converging toward the median line, protruding costas of the leathery part of the elytra, whitish.  Membrane of elytra dark.  Veins concolorous.

    Sex. In the female, the venter is more swollen, the fifth ventral plate is feebly emarginated; the sixth convex and rounded, the four valvular scales are conical and sharp; the exterior ones longer than the others.  In the male, the fifth ventral plate is more emarginate than in the other sex; the sixth is wider, not swollen, very curved, widely bisinuately emarginate.  Posterior angles less prolonged behind than those of the fifth plate which frequently leaves uncovered the pleura of the genital apparatus closest to the median line.  Found in the same places as the preceeding [Pentatoma apicicorne].

Translation of Signoret's 1863 redescription

    Length 12mm. --- Yellow, with whitish yellow lines.  Head entirely yellow, longer than wide, the anterior border rounded at the sides and slightly indented at the middle, the median lobe being shorter than the lateral lobes.  Prothorax with rounded posterior angles, the lateral borders nearly straight, the posterior border straight above the scutellum; the latter with a median line, two basal traces and the lateral borders as well as the apex, of a whitish yellow.  Membrane with 6 to 8 veins.  Abdomen and legs yellow, the latter covered with a strong but sparse black pubescence.

David A. Rider
Professor of Entomology
North Dakota State University
202 Hultz Hall
Fargo, ND 58105
E-Mail: David.Rider@ndsu.edu

updated: 01 May 2007

 
Published by the Department of Entomology 

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