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Member Symposium

Systematics, Evolution, and Biodiversity

Three Suborders, One Goal: Advancing Systematics of Hemiptera

Pink knees and polka dots: Phylogenetics of an undescribed lineage of Mirinae from South Africa (Hemiptera: Miridae)

Tuesday, November 11, 2025

3:05 PM - 3:20 PM Pacific

Location: Oregon Convention Center, B115, OCC

Presenting Author(s)

Falon Butcher

Undergraduate Bachelor's+Master's Student
University of California

Co-Author(s)

Veronica Tyts (she/her/hers)

PhD candidate
University of California
Riverside, California
RH

Rochelle Hoey-Chamberlain

University of California, Riverside
Riverside, California
MF

Michael Forthman

Senior Insect Biosystematist
California Department of Food and Agriculture
Sacramento, California
CW

Christiane Weirauch (she/her/hers)

University of California
Riverside, California

Miridae are the largest family in the insect suborder Heteroptera (order Hemiptera). The National Science Foundation has funded a grant to explore biodiversity and phylogenetics of the plant bug family Miridae. As part of this grant, the Weirauch lab collected mirids in South Africa, a region with high plant bug diversity that remains largely undescribed. Several species were discovered that are likely closely related but cannot be placed in currently recognized genera. This new lineage belongs to the Mirinae, the largest subfamily of plant bugs, but its relationship to other Mirinae genera are unknown. The first aim of this project is to develop a phylogenetic tree that illustrates where in the tree of life this new genus is located and test it for monophyly. The second is to develop a species-level phylogeny for the genus that allows us to better understand the evolution of sexual wing dimorphism and biogeographic history.