First records of the lace bug genus Lasiacantha Stål, 1873 (Hemiptera, Heteroptera, Tingidae) from Japan

The lace bug genus Lasiacantha Stål, 1873 (Hemiptera, Heteroptera, Tingidae, Tinginae, Tingini) is widely distributed in the Old World; however, no species has been recorded in Japan. To date, L . altimitrata (Takeya, 1933) has been reported in China and Taiwan. Here, I report Lasiacantha and L . altimitrata from Japan for the first time, based on ma terials collected from Ishigaki and Miyako islands in the Ryukyu Islands. In Japan, this lace bug is found in grasslands near beaches. Miyako Island is the easternmost locality for L . altimitrata .

Over the past 30 years, my colleague Masami Hayashi has collected an indeterminate species of Lasiacantha from the grassland near the beaches of Ishigaki and Miyako islands of the Ryukyu Islands, Japan, located in the Oriental Region. After careful morphological examination, I concluded that these specimens corresponded to L. altimitrata. In the present study, I report the genus Lasiacantha in Japan for the first time, based on the species L. altimitrata. Miyako Island is the easternmost locality for this species.

Methods
Dried specimens were examined under a stereoscopic microscope (SZ60; Olympus, Tokyo, Japan) equipped with an ocular grid. The measurements were obtained using a micrometer on an ocular grid. The specimens were photographed using a digital microscope (Dino-Lite Premier M, Opto Science, Tokyo, Japan) and a compact digital camera (Tough TG-6, Olympus, Tokyo, Japan), and the image stacks obtained with the digital microscope were processed using Adobe Photoshop 2021 v. 22.5.1. Morphological terms were assigned in accordance with previous monographs (Drake and Davis 1960;Takeya 1962;Drake and Ruhoff 1965).
All specimens used in this study were deposited in the Entomological Laboratory, Faculty of Agriculture, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan (ELKU) and the Laboratory of Entomology, Faculty of Agriculture, Tokyo University of Agriculture, Kanagawa, Japan (TUA).
Distribution records of the species were mapped using SimpleMappr (Shorthouse 2010). Geographical coordinates were obtained from Google Maps. The map was edited using Adobe Photoshop 2021 v. 22.5.1.

Results
The genus Lasiacantha, represented by L. altimitrata, is recorded in Japan for the first time based on three specimens collected from Ishigaki and Miyako islands of the Ryukyu Islands.

Lasiacantha Stål, 1873
Identification. Lasiacantha is distinguished from other tingid genera by the following characteristics: dorsum brown, patchy; head with five long spines; pronotum tricarinate; hood semiglobose or conical; paranotum rounded throughout its length, semicircular; outer margin of paranotum with a single row of setiferous tubercles; hemelytron widest in middle part; anterior margin of hemelytron with a single row of setiferous tubercles; and costal area broad, more than 0.5 times as wide as discoidal area (cf. Symonds and Cassis 2013). The specimens recorded below match these diagnostic characteristics well (Figs. 1-3) and are confidently identified as Lasiacantha.   Guilbert, 2007, but L. altimitrata is easily distinguished from L. gressitti by the following characteristics (cf. Guilbert 2007): labium reaching middle part of mesosternum; hood higher than median carina at highest part; and costal area of hemelytron narrower than discoidal area at widest part (Figs. 1, 2). Identification. The three specimens recorded from Japan (Figs. 1, 2) match well with the holotype (Fig. 3) and descriptions of L. altimitrata (Takeya 1933) in terms of morphological characteristics. Therefore, the specimens from Japan are identified as L. altimitrata.
Distribution. Japan (Ryukyu Islands: Miyako and Ishigaki islands); China (Fujian Province); Taiwan (Taipei City) (Takeya 1933;Drake and Maa 1953;present study) (Fig. 4). A record from India (Drake and Ruhoff 1965) does not list literature and examined specimens and appears to be erroneous. Biology. Lasiacantha altimitrata was collected from a grassland near a beach in Japan (present study). It was previously found on an indeterminate lamiaceous herb in China (Drake and Maa 1953). Adults were collected in January, October, and November (Takeya 1933;present study).

Discussion
Previously, Lasiacantha altimitrata was recorded in one locality in Fujian Province, China, and one locality in Taipei City, Taiwan (Takeya 1933;Drake and Maa 1953). The discovery of L. altimitrata from Miyako Island, in the Ryukyu Islands, Japan, represents the easternmost occurrence of this species (Fig. 4). Additionally, the Miyako and Fujian localities are more than 900 km apart. I suggest that the geographic range of L. altimitrata is   not limited to a small area of southeastern China and northern Taiwan across the Taiwan Strait but may cover a wide area in the Oriental Region of East Asia. Therefore, reports of this species from more localities are expected in future field surveys.