Species Falcophantis westcotti Fletcher, 1988

Falcophantis westcotti Fletcher, adult

© Copyright Murray Fletcher, Orange Agricultural Institute.

Museums

Regional Maps

• Falcophantis westcotti Fletcher, M.J. 1988. The Australian genera of Flatidae (Homoptera: Fulgoroidea). General and Applied Entomology 20: 9-32 [21].

  Type data:

   Holotype QM T.10966 ♂ (coll.: 3.xi.1975, I.D. Galloway, D-vac, in Spinifex grass), 112 km S of Normanton, Queensland.

Introduction

This tiny species reaches 2.7mm in males and 3.3 mm in females. It is common on Barrow Island, part of the Carnarvon region of Western Australia, but was originally described from near Normanton, in the Gulf Country of Queensland. In both places it has been collected by vacuum sampling Spinifex grass.

Distribution

States

Queensland, Western Australia

IBRA and IMCRA regions

IBRA

Qld, WA: Carnarvon (CAR), Gulf Plains (GUP)

Ecological Descriptors

All stages: phloem feeder.

Diagnosis

Coloration. Pale brown with dark brown stripe from beyond middle of tegmen to apex of sutural angle. Pronotum and mesonotum with faint median longitudinal pale stripe with darker stripe on either side. Morphology. Frons wider than long, concave on basal half with roundly arched frontoclypeal suture, convex on apical half, smooth with median longitudinal carina; lateral margins more strongly convex between clypeus and antenna than between antenna and apex, so that widest part is level with antennae. Pronotum shorter than vertex, with front margin transverse, slightly medially emarginate, and hind margin evenly concave. Mesonotum wider than long. Tegmen less than twice as long as widest part, which is at about half length of tegmen. Costal margin strongly convex to apex of costal cell, thence concave to apex of sutural angle. Sutural margin straight. Male genitalia. Pygofer short with posterior margins straight, process not developed. Paramere narrow with triangular process on dorsal margin near apex (Fletcher 1988).

Diagnosis References

Fletcher, M.J. 1988. The Australian genera of Flatidae (Homoptera: Fulgoroidea). General and Applied Entomology 20: 9-32 [21]

History of changes