First record of the stink bug genus Ochrophara Stål, 1871 (Hemiptera, Heteroptera, Pentatomidae) from Japan

The stink bug genus Ochrophara Stål, 1871 (Hemiptera, Heteroptera, Pentatomidae, Pentatominae, Sephelini) is distributed in the Oriental Region, including southern China; however, no species has been recorded in Japan. To date, O . chinensis Zheng & Liu, 1987 has only been reported in China. In the present study, Ochrophara and O . chinensis were recorded in Japan for the first time based on materials from Okinawa and Ishigaki islands of the Ryukyu Islands. Oki nawa Island is the northernmost locality for this genus. The species was attracted to artificial light on Okinawa Island.

For the past 11 years, our colleagues have collected an unidentified species of Ochrophara from Okinawa and Ishigaki islands of the Ryukyu Islands, Japan. After a careful morphological examination, we concluded that this corresponded to O. chinensis. In the present study, we report the genus Ochrophara from Japan for the first time, based on the finding of O. chinensis. Okinawa Island is the northernmost locality for this genus.

Methods
The 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. To examine the male genitalia, the genital capsule was removed from the body after softening the specimens in hot water.
The removed parts were immersed in a hot 15% KOH solution for 5 min and then soaked in 99% ethanol before further observation. The genital capsule was preserved in small polyethylene vials containing 50% glycerin and mounted on a pin with the individual specimens. 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). The image stacks obtained with the digital microscope were processed using Adobe Photoshop 2021 v. 22.5.1. Morphological terms were assigned according to the method of Tsai et al. (2011).
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 using the Google Maps software. The map was edited using Adobe Photoshop.

Results
The genus Ochrophara, represented by O. chinensis, was recorded in Japan for the first time based on four specimens collected from Okinawa and Ishigaki islands in the Ryukyu Islands.

Ochrophara Stål, 1871
Identification. Ochrophara is distinguished from other genera of the tribe Sephelini Breddin, 1904 by the following characteristics: body robust; head as long as its maximum width across compound eyes; mandibular plates reaching beyond apex of clypeus, separated from each other at their apices; and humeral angle of pronotum strongly protruding outward (Stål 1871;Kirby 1891;Distant 1902;Zheng and Liu 1987;present study). The following recorded specimens match these diagnostic characteristics (Figs. 1, 2) and could be identified as Ochrophara without uncertainty.  (Fig. 2) (Zheng and Liu 1987). The four specimens from Japan recorded in this study (Figs. 1-3) matched well with the description of O. chinensis (Zheng and Liu 1987) in terms of morphological characteristics, including the genital capsule. Therefore, we identified the specimen from Japan as O. chinensis.
Biology. In Japan, O. chinensis was attracted to artificial light on Okinawa Island. Adults were collected in May and from July to September (Zheng and Liu 1987;present study).

Discussion
To date, Ochrophara chinensis has been recorded in only one locality, the type locality of the species in Yunnan Province, China (Zheng and Liu 1987;Rider et al. 2002). To the best of our knowledge, no species of Ochrophara have been recorded north of the type locality of O. chinensis (Stål 1871;Kirby 1891;Rider 2006). Therefore, Okinawa Island of the Ryukyu Islands, Japan, is the northernmost locality of the genus (Fig. 4). Additionally, the Okinawa and Yunnan localities, both located in the Oriental Region, are over 3,000 km apart. Therefore, this stink bug species seems to be widely distributed in the Oriental Region of East Asia, and more localities will probably be discovered in future field surveys. first author from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Tokyo, Japan. We would like to thank Editage (https://www.editage.jp) for the English language editing.