Species Siphanta fusca Fletcher, 1985

Siphanta fusca Fletcher, adult, dark brown form

© Copyright Murray Fletcher, Orange Agricultural Institute.

Siphanta fusca Fletcher, adult, light brown form

© Copyright Murray Fletcher, Orange Agricultural Institute.

Museums

Regional Maps

• Siphanta fusca Fletcher, M.J. 1985. Revision of the genus Siphanta Stål (Homoptera: Fulgoroidea: Flatidae). Australian Journal of Zoology Supplementary Series 110: 1-94 [23].

  Type data:

   Holotype ANIC 9450 ♂ (coll.: 5.v.1975, T.E. Aplin), Oobagooma, Western Australia.

Introduction

This species has been found in northern Western Australia as well as from the Swan Valley near Perth and in one location in the Northern Territory. It is distinctive in its chocolate-brown colouring although there is variation in this as well as in the width of the tegmen. However, despite this variation, the male genitalia are consistent throughout.

Distribution

States

Northern Territory, Western Australia

IBRA and IMCRA regions

IBRA

NT, WA: Northern Kimberley (NK), Ord Victoria Plain (OVP), Swan Coastal Plain (SWA), Victoria Bonaparte (VB)

Ecological Descriptors

All stages: phloem feeder.

Diagnosis

This species was placed by Fletcher (1985) into the anomala group but, although the five species in this group show affinity with each other, they lack uniform characteristics throughout.
Chocolate brown with red speckling. Frons pale brown with red and black speckling. Dorsum of thorax brown with pale granules. Fore- and mid-femora apically and fore- and mid-tibiae speckled with black. Tarsi marked with red. Tegmen chocolate brown with red crossveins. Tegmen darker brown near margins with edge red, apices of veins pale. Some specimens with darker markings on tegmen. Head with frons evenly rounded laterally with short median longitudinal carina and lateral carinae indicated at apex; vertex with apical margin more or less parallel with curvature of anterior margin of pronotum. Tegmen wider near apex than at level of claval apex; costal margin with concavity just beyond apex of costal cell, thence convex around apical angle; sutural angle rounded; M1+2 branched just proximal to level of apex of clavus. Male pygofer without process. Paramere triangular with recurved pointed process. Female third valvulae narrow triangular with pilose area lateroventral. Second valvulae gap broadly U-shaped (Fletcher 1985).

ID Keys

Fletcher 1985: 4
Fletcher, M.J. (2005). Illustrated Key to the species of the genus Siphanta Stål (Hemiptera: Fulgoroidea: Flatidae) http://www1.dpi.nsw.gov.au/keys/fulgor/flatid/siphanta/siph00.htm

Diagnosis References

Fletcher, M.J. 1985. Revision of the genus Siphanta Stål (Homoptera: Fulgoroidea: Flatidae). Australian Journal of Zoology Supplementary Series 110: 1-94 [23–24]

History of changes