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Photo#1697355
Plant Bug - Lopidea

Plant Bug - Lopidea
Doylestown , Bucks County, Pennsylvania, USA
July 21, 2019

Moved
Moved from ID Request.

mirid
Lopidea?

 
Question
Someone on iNaturalist is suggesting Lopidea dakota as the species, but the taxonomy on Bugguide doesn't list dakota at all. I was also reluctant to post a species ID as Lopidea species seem to be very visually similar. Any thoughts?

 
Lopidea dakota
isn't listed in BugGuide because no one has submitted any photos ID'd to that species yet. It's listed as a valid species at itis.gov and the name is included in nearctica.com (the source of much of BugGuide's nomenclature). You can request that a BugGuide species page be created for Lopidea dakota here: Requests for Additional Guide Pages. Whether that request is granted is probably going to depend on whether the BugGuide editors agree with the species ID. It would help to have an explanation of the ID from whomever suggested it on iNaturalist.

edit: I did some digging and found Adam Asquith's PhD thesis on this genus here: https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/10197326.pdf. The description of L. dakota is on page 130. It looks like rigorous ID of many Lopidea species is by dissection of male genitalia. However, the thesis does contain an overall description of this species.

 
Thanks
Thanks for the information about adding species to Bugguide and for digging up the additional information on Lopidea dakota. The person suggesting the ID is a biology student and entomology enthusiast. I have not heard back from them yet. I know that some species of arthropod can only be distinguished by dissecting genitalia so I was curious as to whether I was missing something obvious.

The only other two reported sightings of Lopidea dakota on iNaturalist are from Alberta, Canada. This is consistent with the range given in the paper you provided and should also rule out my sighting.

 
Thanks
Yes, I thought it was Lopidea, but figured I would verify here. :)

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