Species Austroagallia torrida Evans, 1936

The Spotted Leafhopper, Austroagallia torrida Evans, adult.

© Copyright Murray Fletcher, Orange Agricultural Institute.

Museums

Regional Maps

• Austroagallia torrida Evans, J.W. 1936. The Bythoscopidae of Australia (Homoptera: Jassoidea). Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania 1935: 61-83 [70].

  Type data:

   Holotype AM ♂ (coll.: at light, J.W. Evans), Adelaide, South Australia.
• Peragallia launensis Linnavuori, R.E. 1960. Cicadellidae (Homoptera, Auchenorrhyncha) of Fiji. Acta Entomologica Fennica 5: 1-71 [8].

  Type data:

   Holotype BMNH ♂ (coll.: 5.ix.1924, E.H. Bryan), Lau, Vanua Masi, Fiji.

Taxonomic Decision for Synonymy

• Evans, J.W. 1966. The leafhoppers and froghoppers of Australia and New Zealand. Memoirs of the Australian Museum 12: 1-347 [170]

Generic Combinations

• Nehela torrida (Evans, 1936). —
  Evans, J.W. 1940. Some Queensland leafhoppers (Jassoidea: Homoptera) that attack lucerne. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Queensland 52: 10-13 [11]

Introduction

The Spotted Leafhopper is common in grassland throughout much of Australia in both coastal and inland areas. The species is the vector of rugose leafcurl disease in field crops, originally reported by Grylls (1954) as a virus but now known to be a Rickettsia-like bacterial disease.

Distribution

States

New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, Western Australia

IBRA and IMCRA regions

IBRA

NSW, Qld, Vic, WA: Brigalow Belt South (BBS), Broken Hill Complex (BHC), Carnarvon (CAR), Channel Country (CHC), Central Kimberley (CK), Coolgardie (COO), Cobar Peneplain (CP), Central Ranges (CR), Daly Basin (DAB), Darwin Coastal (DAC), Dampierland (DL), Davenport Murchison Ranges (DMR), Darling Riverine Plains (DRP), Flinders Lofty Block (FLB), Gawler (GAW), Gulf Fall and Uplands (GFU), Mallee (MAL), Mitchell Grass Downs (MGD), Mulga Lands (ML), Nandewar (NAN), New England Tablelands (NET), Northern Kimberley (NK), NSW North Coast (NNC), NSW South Western Slopes (NSS), Sydney Basin (SB), South Eastern Highlands (SEH), South Eastern Queensland (SEQ), Simpson Strzelecki Dunefields (SSD), Stony Plains (STP), Swan Coastal Plain (SWA), Victoria Bonaparte (VB)

Ecological Descriptors

Adult: vector.

All stages: phloem feeder.

Diagnosis

Length 3.5 mm. Head width 1 mm, ivory with faint yellowish brown markings; ocelli red, eyes black; crown with two large round black spots at the same distance from each other as from the eyes on each side. Pronotum ivory with yellowish brown markings, and two black pear-shaped markings, lying behind those on the head. Scutellum yellowish brown. Tegmen claval area, an opaque dirty white, the rest of the tegmen transparent, veins brown, distinct. Thorax ventral surface brown. Legs pale yellow, the bases of larger spines brown. Abdomen ventral surface pale yellow(Evans 1936).

Diagnosis References

Evans, J.W. 1936. The Bythoscopidae of Australia (Homoptera: Jassoidea). Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania 1935: 61-83 [70]

General References

Grylls, N.E. 1954. Rugose leaf curl — a new virus disease transovarially transmitted by the leafhopper Austroagallia torrida. Australian Journal of Biological Sciences 7: 47–58

History of changes