Species Platybrachys decemmacula (Walker, 1851)

Platybrachys decemmacula (Walker), adult male

© Copyright Murray Fletcher, Orange Agricultural Institute.

Museums

Regional Maps

• Eurybrachys decemmacula Walker, F. 1851. List of the Specimens of Homopterous Insects in the Collection of the British Museum. London : British Museum (Natural History) Vol. 2 pp. 261-636. [389].

  Type data:

   Holotype BMNH ♂ (from Mr. Lambert's collection; holotype by monotypy), New Holland.
• Eurybrachys decisa Walker, F. 1851. List of the Specimens of Homopterous Insects in the Collection of the British Museum. London : British Museum (Natural History) Vol. 2 pp. 261-636. [389].

  Type data:

   Holotype BMNH ♂ (from Mr Lambert's collection; holotype by monotypy), New Holland.

Taxonomic Decision for Synonymy

• Hacker, H. 1924. Field notes on Platybrachys &c (Homoptera). Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 8(1): 37-42 [39] (synonymy of Eurybrachys decisa)

Generic Combinations

• Platybrachys decemmacula (Walker, 1851). —
  Stål, C. 1862. Synonymiska och systematiska anteckningar öfver Hemiptera. Öfversigt af Kongelige Vetenskaps-Akademiens Förhandlingar, Stockholm 19(9): 479-504 [488]

Introduction

This is a common species in the Sydney region and in SE Queensland. The males are slightly smaller than the females and have a triangualr white patch towards the apex of the wing on the costal margin. Hacker (1924) synonymised P. decisa on the basis of a pair collected in copula, the female being P. decemmacula and the male matching one which had been identified at the BMNH as P. decisa. The synonymy needs to be confirmed by examination of the male holotypes of both names.

Distribution

States

New South Wales, Queensland

IBRA and IMCRA regions

IBRA

NSW, Qld: Sydney Basin (SB), South Eastern Queensland (SEQ)

Ecological Descriptors

All stages: phloem feeder.

Diagnosis

Body ferruginous, very broad; head as broad as the chest; crown dull tawny, tinged with green, finely striated, slightly convex in front, equally concave behind, its breadth about six times its length; front large, flat, scutcheon-shaped, tawny, tinged with green, concave where it joins the epistoma which is small; mouth ferruginous; fore-chest much longer than the crown, nearly straight on the hind border, convex in front where it has a double rim; middle-chest nearly triangular, about twice the length of the fore-chest; hind-chest partly yellow; abdomen obconical, not longer than the chest; legs ferruginous, broad, their ridges bristly, a stout spine on each hind-hip; hind-shanks armed with three black spines; fore-wings ferruginous, pale gray along the fore border, dark gray at the tips, adorned with five black spots; three on the fore border and two at the tip, the third smaller than the others; veins ferruginous, slightly dotted with brown towards the tips; a row of short parallel cross-veins along the fore border; hind-wings and their veins blackish, paler at the base. Length of the body 3.5 lines; of the wings 12 lines. (Walker 1851)

Diagnosis References

Walker, F. 1851. List of the Specimens of Homopterous Insects in the Collection of the British Museum. London : British Museum (Natural History) Vol. 2 pp. 261-636. [389]

History of changes