Species Oteana lubra (Kirkaldy, 1906)

Oteana lubra (Kirkaldy), adult

© Copyright Murray Fletcher, Orange Agricultural Institute.

Museums

Regional Maps

• Oliarus lubra Kirkaldy, G.W. 1906. Leafhoppers and their natural enemies. Bulletin of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association Experimental Station Entomological Series 1(9): 271-479 [400].
• Oliarus lubra vitiensis Kirkaldy, G.W. 1907. Leafhoppers — Supplement (Hemiptera). Bulletin of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association Experimental Station Entomological Series 3: 1-186 [109].

  Type data:

   Syntype(s) BPBM 1194 ♂ (coll: ii.1906), Navua, Fiji.

Taxonomic Decision for Synonymy

• Löcker, B., Fletcher, M.J., Larivière, M.-C. & Gurr, G.M. 2006. The Australian Pentastirini (Hemiptera: Fulgoromorpha: Cixiidae). Zootaxa 1290: 1-138 [93] (synonymy of O. lubra vitiensis Kirkaldy)

Generic Combinations

• Oteana lubra (Kirkaldy, 1906). —
  Löcker, B., Fletcher, M.J., Larivière, M.-C. & Gurr, G.M. 2006. The Australian Pentastirini (Hemiptera: Fulgoromorpha: Cixiidae). Zootaxa 1290: 1-138 [93]

Introduction

This is the most common and widespread Australian cixiid in the eastern half of Australia. It is also reasonably large (up to 10 mm) and well represented in collections from a range of habitats, including desert areas and coastal regions. The species has also been recorded from Fiji and New Caledonia although specimens from Fiji are smaller than those found in Australia (6–6.5 mm) prompting Kirkaldy (1907) to recognise it as a separate variety. Löcker et.al. (2006) found no justification for regarding the Fijian form as being significantly different from the Australian form and synonymised Kirkaldy's variety.
The species has been collected in Australia on Eucalyptus citriodora Hook. (Myrtaceae), chickpeas (Fabaceae), sugarcane (Poaceae), Eremophila mitchellii (Myoporaceae) and Solanum tuberosum L. (Solanaceae).

Distribution

States

New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Victoria

IBRA and IMCRA regions

IBRA

NSW, NT, Qld, SA, Vic: Brigalow Belt North (BBN), Brigalow Belt South (BBS), Broken Hill Complex (BHC), Channel Country (CHC), Central Mackay Coast (CMC), Cobar Peneplain (CP), Daly Basin (DAB), Desert Uplands (DEU), Darling Riverine Plains (DRP), Eyre Yorke Block (EYB), Flinders Lofty Block (FLB), Gawler (GAW), Gulf Fall and Uplands (GFU), Gulf Coastal (GUC), Gulf Plains (GUP), Murray Darling Depression (MDD), Mitchell Grass Downs (MGD), Mulga Lands (ML), Nandewar (NAN), New England Tablelands (NET), NSW North Coast (NNC), NSW South Western Slopes (NSS), Pine Creek (PCK), Riverina (RIV), Sydney Basin (SB), South Eastern Queensland (SEQ), Simpson Strzelecki Dunefields (SSD), Stony Plains (STP), Tanami (TAN), Wet Tropics (WT)

Other Regions

Lord Howe Island terrestrial & freshwater

Ecological Descriptors

Adult: phloem feeder.

Extra Ecological Information

Nymph might be phloem feeder or fungivore.

Diagnosis

Colour. Vertex light to mid brown, carinae paler; face light brown, carinae paler, anteclypeus darker; pronotum light brown; mesonotum mid to dark brown, paler between lateral and sublateral carinae; legs light brown; forewing hyaline colourless with brown marks along crossveins, veins light brown, apically darker, tubercles concolorous with veins, pterostigma light to mid brown; abdominal sternites light to mid brown. Morphology. Body length: ♂ 6.4–7.7 mm, ♀ 8.4–10.0 mm. Head: Vertex (total length) 1.4–1.6 times longer than wide; basal emargination obtusely angled or rectangular. Postclypeus with well-developed median carina. Rostrum not reaching hind coxae. Thorax: Hind margin of pronotum obtusely angled. Mesonotum with evanescent or well-developed carinae. Forewing 3.1–3.9 times longer than wide; costa with 0–1 tubercles; 9 apical cells. Male genitalia: Aedeagus: Phallotheca with a spine forking into a short branch and a very long curved branch; a spine forking into three branches; a very short spine; and sometimes with a very slender spine; phallotheca with a sclerotised rounded flap dorsally. Flagellum membranous, unarmed. (Löcker et.al. 2006)

ID Keys

Löcker et.al. (2006: 92)

Diagnosis References

Löcker, B., Fletcher, M.J., Larivière, M.-C. & Gurr, G.M. 2006. The Australian Pentastirini (Hemiptera: Fulgoromorpha: Cixiidae). Zootaxa 1290: 1-138 [93–95]

History of changes