Species Sextius spretus (Buckton, 1903)

Museums

Regional Maps

• Pterosticta spreta Buckton, G.B. 1903. A Monograph of the Membracidae. Covent Garden : Lovell Reeve & Co. Limited 296 pp., 60 pls. [230].

  Type data:

   Holotype BMNH ♂ (Mr J.O. Tepper's collection), Adelaide, South Australia.
• Sextius longinotum Kirkaldy, G.W. 1906. Leafhoppers and their natural enemies. Bulletin of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association Experimental Station Entomological Series 1(9): 271-479 [377].

  Type data:

   Syntype(s) BPBM ♀, quantity unknown (coll.: viii.1904), Nelson (= Gordonvale), Queensland.

 

Taxonomic Decision for Synonymy

• Distant, W.L. 1916. Rhynchotal Notes. lx. Annals and Magazine of Natural History 8(18): 19-44 [33]

 

Generic Combinations

• Sextius spretus (Buckton, 1903). —
  Distant, W.L. 1916. Rhynchotal Notes. lx. Annals and Magazine of Natural History 8(18): 19-44 [33]

 

Introduction

The type localities for S. spretus and its synonym S. longinotum are very different, one being in the temperate to dry region of Adelaide, South Australia, and the other being in the wet tropics of North Queensland. The New South Wales record is based on two specimens in ASCU from near Inverell which have been tentatively identified as this species. A species level revision of the genus Sextius may show that these two names are not synonymous. Medler (1987) provided details of Kirkaldy's labelling system in which a hand-written red "N" added to a printed "Cairns, Qld" label indicated that the specimen came from Nelson (now known as Gordonvale) and not Cairns as would appear from the label.

 

Distribution

States

Queensland, South Australia

Extra Distribution Information

Australian Endemic.

IBRA and IMCRA regions

IBRA

Qld, SA: Flinders Lofty Block (FLB), Nandewar (NAN), Wet Tropics (WT)

Ecological Descriptors

All stages: phloem feeder.

 

Diagnosis

Colour variable from bright yellow to sordid greenish. Pronotum with two short blunt suprahumerals, each having a rich brown stripe from its summit. Dorsal ridge nearly straight, pointed, and continued to the tips of the tegmina. Frons oval and rich brown, with conspicuous ocelli. Metopidium seen from the front square, with a broad brown band connecting the tips of the short horns. Legs short, flattened, and reddish-brown. Eyes placed in circular depressions. Tegmina elliptical and pointed. Neuration rather indistinct, but complex and reticulated. Size, 7 x 3 mm (Buckton 1903).

 

Diagnosis References

Buckton, G.B. 1903. A Monograph of the Membracidae. Covent Garden : Lovell Reeve & Co. Limited 296 pp., 60 pls. [230]

 

General 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 [115]

 

History of changes

Published	As part of group	Action Date	Action Type	Compiler(s)
16-May-2012		16-May-2012	MODIFIED
26-Apr-2012		26-Apr-2012	MODIFIED
		12-Feb-2010	(import)