NEW AND LITTLE KNOWN SPECIES OF THE FAMILY SALDIDAE (HETEROPTERA) FROM INDIA AND ADJACENT COUNTRIES
Data on 13 species of the family Saldidae distributed in India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nepal and Vietnam are reported. Two new species Macrosaldula indica sp. n (Himachal Pradesh) and Saldula pericarti sp. n. (Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh) are described from Himalaya. Macrosaldula indica is similar to dark specimens of M. scotica (Curtis, 1835) and M. variabilis variabilis (Herrich-Schaeffer, 1835) of the scotica group but differs in the shorter body and in the genitalia structure. Montane Middle Asian M. tadzhika (Kiritshenko, 1912) is larger and differs from the new species in the colour pattern of its forewing and in the short and arched paramere. An isolated dark spot on the fore tibia and the light pattern on the corium identify Saldula pericarti sp. n. as a member of the saltatoria group, but it differs from other members of this group in the presence of the erect hairs on the head, antennae, pronotum and wings (the character of the orthochila group). New records of Micracanthia minor Hamid et Sultana, 1972, comb. n., are brought from Western and Eastern Pakistan. Micracanthia ornatula (Reuter, 1882) is first discovered in Nepal and Vietnam, Saldula burmanica Lindskog, 1975 and Saldula palustris (Douglas, 1874), in Pakistan, and S. pilosella (Thomson, 1871), in Afghanistan.