Tricoloured bug - Coquillettia lactea

Coquillettia lactea Wyniger, male

… Jason Botz, 12 March, 2020 - 1:55pm

I believe this is C. lactea

My reasons:
(1) Eyes larger, vertex narrower than in albiclava
(2) Anterior white marks on corium are broad and include the embolium (in albiclava these marks are lunate, the embolium dark brown).
Ref: figures and diagnoses in Wyniger (2011).

… Jason Botz, 9 July, 2019 - 7:45pm

Comparing this to the one currently labelled as albiclava

My specimen seems to be a "small" Coquillettia, while this is a very large species:

… James Bailey, 4 June, 2021 - 10:45pm

Yes, lactea is smaller

C. lactea is generally 4-4.5 mm, and C. albiclava is larger, 6-6.5 mm (at least that's the size range in the Nogales PIS collection). I would say that C. albiclava is near the middle of the size range for the genus. The really large ones (e.g. attica, gigantea, pergrandis, perplexabilis, pseudoattica, thomasi) are in the range of 7-9 mm.

… Jason Botz, 7 June, 2021 - 11:00am

Do you have access to the keys?

We have a really large one common in coastal southern CA that seems like it could be IDed.

This fella:
iNat link.

… James Bailey, 7 June, 2021 - 12:54pm

Yes

I have an electronic copy of Wyniger's 2011 revision. Try this link: http://www.bioone.org/doi/full/10.1664/11-RA-012.1

If that doesn't work, send me your email address and I'll email it to you.

The photo on iNaturalist could be one of several species based on dorsal habitus. It would take a look at the genitalia to get it to species.

… Jason Botz, 7 June, 2021 - 4:26pm

It's a purchase-only article.

I will look more later and see if it is available elsewhere.

Well, overlapping species would be a bit awkward. Usually in patterned Miridae there's enough habitat distinction due to host plants that genitalia ID is not required. It would be nice to read the paper and understand for myself, though.

… James Bailey, 7 June, 2021 - 4:30pm