Species Anzora unicolor (Walker, 1862)

Anzora unicolor (Walker), grey form.

© Copyright Murray Fletcher, Orange Agricultural Institute.

Anzora unicolor (Walker), pale greenish form.

© Copyright Murray Fletcher, Orange Agricultural Institute.

Museums

Regional Maps

• Massila unicolor Walker, F. 1862. Characters of undescribed species of Homoptera in the collection of F.P. Pascoe, F.L.S. Journal of Entomology A 1: 303-319 [315].

  Type data:

   Holotype BMNH ♂ (F.P. Pascoe colln.), Moreton Bay, Queensland
  Comment: Medler (1986) designated a female lectotype for a species which was clearly described as a male in the original description.
• Sephena cinerea Kirkaldy, G.W. 1906. Leafhoppers and their natural enemies. Bulletin of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association Experimental Station Entomological Series 1(9): 271-479 [457].

  Type data:

   Lectotype BPBM ♂ (coll.: Koebele, i.1905), Sydney, New South Wales.
  Paralectotype(s) BPBM 1 ♂, 3 ♀ (coll: Koebele, ii.1905), Sydney, New South Wales; BPBM 10 ♂, 10 ♀ (coll: i.1905), Sydney, New South Wales.

  Subsequent designation references:

  Medler, J.T. 1987. Types of Flatidae (Homoptera) XI. Taxonomic notes on Kirkaldy Types in the Bishop Museum, with illustrations of the genitalia of male lectotypes. Bishop Museum Occasional Papers 27: 115-125 [120].

Taxonomic Decision for Synonymy

• Medler, J.T. 1986. Anzora and Dworena, two new genera erected for Australian species formerly placed in Paratella and Sephena. (Homoptera: Fulgoridae). Insecta Mundi 1(4): 206-208 [206] (synonymy of Sephena cinerea Kirkaldy)

Generic Combinations

• Melicharia unicolor (Walker, 1862). —
  Distant, W.L. 1910. Rhynchotal Notes. L. Annals and Magazine of Natural History 8 5: 297-322 [304]
• Anzora unicolor (Walker, 1862). —
  Medler, J.T. 1986. Anzora and Dworena, two new genera erected for Australian species formerly placed in Paratella and Sephena. (Homoptera: Fulgoridae). Insecta Mundi 1(4): 206-208 [206]

Introduction

This species is common in south eastern Australia and has also been recorded in the wet tropics of North Queensland and at Brentwood, a suburb of Perth, Western Australia. It is adventive in New Zealand where it is reported as a vector of fireblight, a bacterial disease of pome fruit. Adults show variation in colour from pale greenish white to pale grey.

Distribution

States

New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria

IBRA and IMCRA regions

IBRA

NSW, Qld, SA, Tas, Vic: Australian Alps (AA), Darling Riverine Plains (DRP), Nandewar (NAN), New England Tablelands (NET), NSW North Coast (NNC), NSW South Western Slopes (NSS), Riverina (RIV), Sydney Basin (SB), South East Corner (SEC), South Eastern Highlands (SEH), South Eastern Queensland (SEQ), Swan Coastal Plain (SWA), Tasmanian Northern Midlands (TNM), Wet Tropics (WT)

Ecological Descriptors

All stages: phloem feeder.

Diagnosis

Male. Greenish white. Head very short; front longer than broad, keeled in the middle, the rim on each side dilated towards the face. Prothorax convex in front, straight behind. Fore wings moderately broad, quadrate at the tips; costa slightly convex towards the base, slightly concave exteriorly; interior border straight, tuberculate for more than half the length from the base. Length of the body 2.5 lines; of the wings 8 lines (Walker 1862).

Length: 7–8 mm from anterior margin of the head to apical margin of the tegmina. Females tend to be slightly longer and more robust than the males. Female genitalia: the third valvulae of the ovipositor are strongly sclerotised and bladelike with margins finely serrate; styles oval, the inner sides of the posterior margin with about 12 evenly spaced teeth of nearly equal size. Male genitalia: portion of anal segment basad of anal orifice about 1/4 length of portion apicad of anal orifice; aedeagus thickened, with a pair of curled processes arising apically and directed basally, crossing each other; posterior margin of pygofer not projecting; apico-dorsal margin of style pointed, extended narrowly (Medler 1986).

Diagnosis References

Medler, J.T. 1986. Anzora and Dworena, two new genera erected for Australian species formerly placed in Paratella and Sephena. (Homoptera: Fulgoridae). Insecta Mundi 1(4): 206-208 [206]

Walker, F. 1862. Characters of undescribed species of Homoptera in the collection of F.P. Pascoe, F.L.S. Journal of Entomology A 1: 303-319 [315]

History of changes