Reuteria marqueti

This species was new to Britain in 2006 but there have now been a few records in the London area and others from Hampshire, Gloucestershire and even Liverpool. It sounds like it hasn't been recorded in Norfolk before but given the spread of records elsewhere it can't be a great surprise.

This was found in my garden moth trap. When I saw it, the pattern of green spots on the wings put me in mind of one of my favrourite bugs, Malacocoris chlorizans, a species I thought was unmistakeable. But despite the similarities, I was sure this couldn't be the same species. For starters it seemed a bit bigger than chlorizans. Secondly chlorizans has a distinctly yellowish background colour to the wings - this had a white background lacking any yellow tones. Then there were differences in the legs and antennae, among other things - this had to be something unfamiliar. The species doesn't yet feature at the British Bugs website (except in the checklist) so here was an example of where the ObsIdentify app comes into its own. That was 100% sure it was Reuteria marqueti, a species that wasn't on my radar at all. Obviously I would never rely on the app as it sometimes provides inaccurate results, but in this case it seemed to be right and probably saved me hours of searching.

For the avoidance of doubt I tried running it through Nau's draft key to Miridae. Using this, eliminating chlorizans wasn't quite as straightforward as I was expecting - the eyes were slighty apart from the pronotum and it wasn't as much bigger than my recollection of chlorizans as I thought - but the rostrum extended only to the mid coxae which seems to rule out chlorizans. I wasn't convinced that the base of the hemelytra was "distinctly wider than base of pronotum" but if I took that it was I ended up at Reuteri marqueti and if I took that it wasn't I ended up with a dead end but nearest to the very different-looking Blepharidopterus diaphanus.

Reuteria marqueti showing rostrum and underside of antennal bases and apex of abdomen from below, North Elmham (Norfolk, UK), 9th August 2024