Genus Amrasca Ghauri, 1967

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Regional Maps

• Amrasca Ghauri, M.S.K. 1967. New mango leafhoppers from the Oriental and Austro-oriental regions (Homoptera: Cicadelloidea). Proceedings of the Royal Entomological Society of London (B) 36(11-12): 159-189 [159].

  Type species:

   Amrasca splendens Ghauri, 1967 by original designation.
• Sundapteryx Dworakowska, I. 1970. On some genera of Typhlocybini and Empoascini (Auchenorrhyncha, Cicadellidae, Typhlocybinae). Bulletin de l'Académie Polonaise des Sciences. Série des Sciences Biologiques 18(11): 707-716 [708].

  Type species:

   Chlorita biguttula Ishida, 1913 by original designation.
• Laokayana Dworakowska, I. 1972. On some Oriental and Ethiopian genera of Empoascini (Auchenorrhyncha, Cicadellidae, Typhlocybinae). Bulletin de l'Académie Polonaise des Sciences. Série des Sciences Biologiques 20: 25-34 [27].

  Type species:

   Empoasca bombaxia Ghauri, 1965 by original designation.

Taxonomic Decision for Synonymy

• Dworakowska, I. & Viraktamath, C.A. 1975. On some Typhlocybinae from India (Auchenorrhyncha, Cicadellidae). Bulletin de l'Académie Polonaise des Sciences. Série des Sciences Biologiques 23(8): 521-530 [530] (synonymy of Laokayana and Sundapteryx)

Introduction

Only one described species of Amrasca has been recorded as established in Australia and that is the Australian cotton leafhopper, Amrasca terraereginae (Paoli), which is a pest of cotton in Queensland and New South Wales. However, Amrasca is also known from Western Australia and the Northern Territory and the identity/ies of the species in those areas is unknown. The genus includes the Indian cotton leafhopper, Amrasca biguttula biguttula (Ishida) which was described from India as Empoasca devastans Distant but it was subsequently discovered that Ishida had previously described the same species from Taiwan as Chlorita biguttula Ishida, although Ishida (1913) credited the species to Matsumura. An apparent incursion of A. biguttula biguttula from East Timor in Darwin, Northern Territory in 2001 proved to be a different taxon differing from A. biguttula biguttula only in the setation of the subgenital plates. The species in Darwin would not feed on cotton and was clearly not the Indian cotton leafhopper (S. Smith pers. comm. 2001). An intensive study of the genus in Asia, particularly through the islands of Indonesia, New Guinea and Timor, is needed to establish species limits and provide diagnostic features for all species. The generic name is derived from the Sanskrit word Amra = mango.

Distribution

States

New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, Western Australia

IBRA and IMCRA regions

IBRA

NSW, NT, Qld, WA: Arnhem Coast (ARC), Brigalow Belt North (BBN), Brigalow Belt South (BBS), Carnarvon (CAR), Daly Basin (DAB), Darwin Coastal (DAC), Darling Riverine Plains (DRP), South Eastern Queensland (SEQ), Victoria Bonaparte (VB)

Other Regions

Christmas Island terrestrial & freshwater

Diagnosis

Body delicate. Head including eyes only slightly wider than pronotum; vertex narrow, relatively long, slightly produced in middle where longer than next to eye, anterior and posterior margins not parallel; ocelli small, located on margin between vertex and frons near eyes. Wing venation: venation of forewing with first and second apical veins arising from cell M, third apical vein arising from radial cell; venation of hindwing similar to that of typical Empoasca, i.e. marginal vein extending around wing apex to unbranched Cu1 and Cu2 and separate vannal veins. Male genitalia, capsule and internal parts: pygofer with brachone long and slender ending in an apical extension, flexible or otherwise, lateral of pygofer with few short setae; anal tube of moderate size, with moderately elongate spines; subgenital plates elongate, narrow and moderately to profusely setose; style elongate, narrow, apex toothed or otherwise; aedeagus elongate, simple; basal plate of connective short. Amrasca resembles many allied genera, notably Austroasca [Lower], but differs from all others by the combination of the following characters: tegmen with only first and second apical veins arising from cell M, vertex narrow, in the middle longer than next to eye, elongate brachone with apical extension, elongate style and aedeagus which is also simple, elongate and densely setose subgenital plates, short basal plate and short anal tube spine (Ghauri 1967).

ID Keys

Ghauri 1967: 160–161

Diagnosis References

Ghauri, M.S.K. 1967. New mango leafhoppers from the Oriental and Austro-oriental regions (Homoptera: Cicadelloidea). Proceedings of the Royal Entomological Society of London (B) 36(11-12): 159-189 [159–161]

History of changes