Genus Vulturnus Kirkaldy, 1906

Vulturnus vulturnus Kirkaldy, type species of Vulturnus Kirkaldy.

© Copyright Murray Fletcher, Orange Agricultural Institute.

Museums

Regional Maps

• Vulturnus Kirkaldy, G.W. 1906. Leafhoppers and their natural enemies. Bulletin of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association Experimental Station Entomological Series 1(9): 271-479 [463].

  Type species:

   Vulturnus vulturnus Kirkaldy, 1906 by original designation.

Introduction

This genus of squat, shovel-headed leafhoppers includes three species in Queensland and New South Wales and five species in Papua New Guinea. The genus is close to Thaumatoscopus Kirkaldy but the species are considerably smaller and the crown, although still foliaceous, is only about as long as the length of the pronotum in the midline.

Distribution

States

New South Wales, Queensland

IBRA and IMCRA regions

IBRA

NSW, Qld: Cape York Peninsula (CYP), New England Tablelands (NET), Sydney Basin (SB), South Eastern Queensland (SEQ), Wet Tropics (WT)

Diagnosis

Closely allied to Thaumatoscopus, but the head only slightly foliaceous anteriorly; cells of tegmina irrorate. (Kirkaldy 1906).

Evans (1972) separated Thaumatoscopus from Vulturnus on the basis that T. galeatus had lateral processes on the aedeagus whereas the aedeagal shaft of species of Vulturnus is a simple curved tube without lateral processes.

ID Keys

Fletcher, M.J. (2008) Illustrated Key to the Genera of the Tribe Penthimiini occurring in Australia (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae) http://www1.dpi.nsw.gov.au/keys/leafhop/penthimiini/penth00.htm

Diagnosis References

Evans, J.W. 1972. Characteristics and relationships of the Penthimiinae and some new genera and new species from New Guinea and Australia; also new species of Drabescinae from New Guinea and Australia. Pacific Insects 14(1): 169-200 [173]

Kirkaldy, G.W. 1906. Leafhoppers and their natural enemies. Bulletin of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association Experimental Station Entomological Series 1(9): 271-479 [463]

History of changes