Abstract
The Australian endemic staphylinoid plant bug genus Carvalhoma Slater & Gross, 1977 is revised. The genus is redescribed and its systematic position within Cylapinae is discussed. Carvalhoma malcolmae Slater & Gross, 1977 and C. taplini Slater & Gross, 1977 are redescribed. Three species, C. ovatum sp. nov., C. parvum sp. nov., and C. weiri sp. nov., are described as new to science. A key to species, digital habitus images, SEM images, drawings of male and female genitalia and distribution map are provided.
Highlights
The Miridae (Insecta: Hemiptera: Heteroptera) is one of the largest insect families (Cassis & Schuh 2012)
We decided not to dissect C. taplini as it is known only from two females, representing holotype and paratype, and we found it is NAMYATOVA A.A. & CASSIS G., Revision of the genus Carvalhoma of Australia impossible to remove the abdomen of either of them without damaging the specimen
The representatives of Cylapinae are very diverse morphologically, but all of them have a similar structure of the tarsus and pretarsus, with thin tarsi, no pulvilli, setiform parempodia and slender claws often toothed apically (Gorczyca 2000; Cassis & Schuh 2012)
Summary
The Miridae (Insecta: Hemiptera: Heteroptera) is one of the largest insect families (Cassis & Schuh 2012). Until the mid-1990s the family received little taxonomic attention in Australia, with less than 200 species described (Cassis & Gross 1995). Recent surveys of the Plant Bug Inventory (Cassis et al 2007) and Bush Blitz (www.bushblitz.org.au) projects (Preece et al 2014) have reversed our notion that the family is depauperate in Australia, with many hundreds of new species discovered and remaining to be described (e.g., Cassis & Symonds 2014a, 2014b). The subfamily Cylapinae has received relatively little attention. This subfamily has a worldwide distribution, but collecting of its representatives is hampered by their cryptic habits, as they usually live under the bark, in litter, or on fungi (Gorczyca 2001). Among Australian cylapines only the genera Peritropis Uhler, 1891 and Xenocylapidius Gorczyca, 1997 from the tribe Fulviini and Australian species from the tribe Vanniini have been revised recently (Cassis et al 2003; Moulds & Cassis 2006; Wolski & Gorczyca 2014)
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