Genus Alseis Kirkaldy, 1907

Museums

Regional Maps

• Alseis Kirkaldy, G.W. 1907. Leafhoppers — Supplement (Hemiptera). Bulletin of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association Experimental Station Entomological Series 3: 1-186 [37].

  Type species:

   Alseis osborni Kirkaldy, 1907 by monotypy.

 

Introduction

This endemic genus, which was revised by Stevens (1991), includes seven species of medium-sized brown leafhoppers with a distinctive two-toned colouring on the pronotum, the front section being dark and differentiated from the hind section which is paler. The species are not common in collections and their distributions may well be more extensive than is given here since two species are known from widely disjunct locations. In addition, there appear to be at least two undescribed species in ASCU from Mt Kaputar in northern New South Wales and Orange in the Central West of the same state.

 

Distribution

States

New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia

Extra Distribution Information

Australian Endemic.

IBRA and IMCRA regions

IBRA

NSW, Qld, SA, WA: Australian Alps (AA), Brigalow Belt South (BBS), Channel Country (CHC), Flinders Lofty Block (FLB), Mulga Lands (ML), New England Tablelands (NET), Northern Kimberley (NK), NSW North Coast (NNC), Sydney Basin (SB), South Eastern Highlands (SEH), South Eastern Queensland (SEQ), Wet Tropics (WT)

Diagnosis

Vertex very declivous, dorsally very short, wider laterally than in the middle; eyes touching the base of the tegmina. Frons suboval, basally extending beyond the apical margin of the vertex; antennal ridges straight, entire, nearly as wide as frons. Vertex and pronotum transversely striate. Ocelli on a line with the insertion of the antennae and the base of the frons, not touching the latter (Kirkaldy 1907).

The unusual unifying characteristic of this genus is the ventrally directed forked process that extends from beneath the apex of the anal tube of the male. The genus is also unusual in that a distinctive pronotal colour pattern is found in all species, the anterior section always being at least slightly darker than the clearly delineated posterior section (Stevens 1991).

 

ID Keys

Fletcher, M.J. (2005) Illustrated Key to the Genera of the Tribe Thymbrini (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae: Tartessinae) http://www1.dpi.nsw.gov.au/keys/leafhop/tartessinae/thym00.htm [accessed: 2.ii.2012]

 

Diagnosis References

Kirkaldy, G.W. 1907. Leafhoppers — Supplement (Hemiptera). Bulletin of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association Experimental Station Entomological Series 3: 1-186 [37–38]

Stevens, M.M. 1991. Revision of the genus Alseis Kirkaldy (Homoptera: Cicadelloidea: Cicadellidae) with descriptions of six new species. Invertebrate Taxonomy 5: 43-59 [44–46]

 

History of changes

Published	As part of group	Action Date	Action Type	Compiler(s)
20-Sep-2011		20-Sep-2011	MOVED
		12-Feb-2010	(import)