Systematics of Chinannus Wygodzinsky

The genus Chinannus comprised two described species of minute litter bugs from Costa Rica and Trinidad. In the material assembled as a part of NSF ARTS Dipsocoromorpha grant 26 new species were found. Species of Chinannus have pretty strong sexual dimorphism with macropterous males and coleopteroid females. Males of Chinannus have a mysterious “wing organ”, which is an enlarged sclerotized vein of the wing with some fine structures on it. Different species of Chinannus can be identified based on the structure of “wing organ” as easily as it usually is based on genitalia. Genitalic structures in turn are also not limited by genital segments but also include modifications of pregenital abdominal segments. By previous authors Chinannus was unambiguously placed into subfamily Ogeriinae, however the diagnosis of Ogeriinae remains to be unclear. To test monophyly of the subfamily and verify the taxonomic assignment of Chinannus, a phylogenetic analysis utilizing molecular data was conducted.