Abstract

Abstract We use integrative taxonomy to elucidate species boundaries of the plant bug genus Pseudoloxops (Kirkaldy 1905) in the Austral and Society archipelagos of French Polynesia. We operationalize the unified species concept by treating each individual as a potential species and then establish initial groupings (putative species) following statistically highly-supported reciprocal monophyly of individuals in a phylogenetic analysis of CO1, 16S, and 28S gene fragments. We then test our species hypotheses against additional lines of evidence from geometric morphometrics, genetic distance, discrete genitalic morphology, plant association, and geographic distribution partitions. Twenty species endemic to French Polynesia are recognized as follows: Pseudoloxops aama Balukjian & Van Dam, sp. nov., Pseudoloxops anaana Balukjian & Van Dam, sp. nov., Pseudoloxops baileyi Balukjian & Van Dam, sp. nov., Pseudoloxops chastaoliancai Balukjian & Van Dam, sp. nov., Pseudoloxops harrisonfordi Balukjian & Van Dam, sp. nov., Pseudoloxops kamalaharrisae Balukjian & Van Dam, sp. nov., Pseudoloxops oboyskii Balukjian & Van Dam, sp. nov., Pseudoloxops papepihaa Balukjian & Van Dam, sp. nov., Pseudoloxops puarata Balukjian & Van Dam, sp. nov., Pseudoloxops raimana Balukjian & Van Dam, sp. nov., Pseudoloxops ravataputuarai Balukjian & Van Dam, sp. nov., Pseudoloxops simberloffi Balukjian & Van Dam, sp. nov., Pseudoloxops tairoto Balukjian & Van Dam, sp. nov., Pseudoloxops temehanirahi Balukjian & Van Dam, sp. nov., Pseudoloxops tiapai Balukjian & Van Dam, sp. nov., Pseudoloxops toparaamahana Balukjian & Van Dam, sp. nov., Pseudoloxops tupapaau Balukjian & Van Dam, sp. nov. New synonyms are proposed for Pseudoloxops flavus (Knight, 1937) [=Pseudoloxops rubrocuneatus (Knight, 1937)] and Pseudoloxops adamsoni (Knight, 1937) [= Pseudoloxops nigribasicornis (Knight, 1937) and = Pseudoloxops tahiticus (Knight, 1937)]. Pseudoloxops rubroclavus (Knight, 1937) is redescribed.