Species Austroasca histrionicula (Kirkaldy, 1906)

Museums

Regional Maps

• Cicadula histrionicula Kirkaldy, G.W. 1906. Leafhoppers and their natural enemies. Bulletin of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association Experimental Station Entomological Series 1(9): 271-479 [361].

  Type data:

   Syntype(s) BPBM ♀, quantity unknown (coll.: ix-xii. 1904), Bundaberg, Queensland
  Comment: Lower (1952) refers to a female type. This may constitute a lectotype designation by default or there may be a female holotype by monotypy if it can be shown that Kirkaldy had only one specimen.
• Empoasca pulcherrima Evans, J.W. 1942. Some new leafhoppers from Australia and Fiji. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Queensland 54(5): 49-51 [49].

  Type data:

   Holotype QM Ho. 5233 ♂ (coll.: 7.iv.1942, A. May, on Sida subspicata), Gayndah, Queensland.

 

Taxonomic Decision for Synonymy

• Lower, H.F. 1952. A revision of Australian species previously referred to the genus Empoasca (Cicadellidae: Homoptera). Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 76(5-6): 190-221 [214] (synonymy of E. pulcherrima)

 

Generic Combinations

• Austroasca (Austroasca) histrionicula (Kirkaldy, 1906). —
  Lower, H.F. 1952. A revision of Australian species previously referred to the genus Empoasca (Cicadellidae: Homoptera). Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 76(5-6): 190-221 [214]
• Empoasca histrionicula (Kirkaldy, 1906). —
  Evans, J.W. 1966. The leafhoppers and froghoppers of Australia and New Zealand. Memoirs of the Australian Museum 12: 1-347 [263]
• Austroasca histrionicula (Kirkaldy, 1906) [Austroasca Lower was synonymised with Empoasca Walsh by Evans (1966) who listed all the included species as new combinations. Ghauri (1967) regarded the two genera as being separate and this was accepted by Evans (1977). However, the reinstated combinations were not listed by either author and first reappeared in Day & Fletcher (1994)]. —
  Day, M.F. & Fletcher, M.J. 1994. An annotated catalogue of the Australian Cicadelloidea (Hemiptera: Auchenorrhyncha). Invertebrate Taxonomy 8: 1117-1288 [1224]
• Empoasca histrionicula (Kirkaldy, 1906). —
  Myers, J.G. 1928. A note on Australian typhlocybine leafhoppers, with a description of a new species. Bulletin of Entomological Research 18: 311-312 [311]

 

Introduction

This boldly marked species is similar in appearance to A. malvae (Evans) which also has dark brown markings on the dorsal and posterior regions of the tegmen. It was described from SE Queensland but specimens are known from widely separated locations in New South Wales and from Barrow Island, Western Australia.

 

Distribution

States

New South Wales, Queensland, Western Australia

Extra Distribution Information

Australian Endemic.

IBRA and IMCRA regions

IBRA

NSW, Qld, WA: Broken Hill Complex (BHC), Carnarvon (CAR), Central Mackay Coast (CMC), South Eastern Queensland (SEQ)

Ecological Descriptors

All stages: parenchyma feeder (associated flora: Sida subspicata Bentham [MALVACEAE]).

Associated Flora References

Evans, J.W. 1942. Some new leafhoppers from Australia and Fiji. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Queensland 54(5): 49-51 [49] (Sida subspicata)

 

Diagnosis

Head pale lemon yellow, vertex almost entirely occupied by two large subcontiguous subquadrangular blackish spots. Pronotum blackish, lateral margins and sides pale lemon yellow. Scutellum blackish. Sterna, sternites and tergiites pale lemon yellow, a spot about the middle and most of the posterior half of the latter (including genital segments) blackish; genital segments beneath greenish, apical 2/3 of pygofers black. Tegmina pale yellow, apical 2/3 of clavus, a patch near the middle of the corium and the exteroapical third of corium, blackish. Wing veins brownish. Female: Valve deeply narrowly notched, posteriorly rounded on each side of this; pygofers long and narrow (Kirkaldy 1906).

Lower (1952) gave a comprehensive redescription (pp 214–215) and provided figures of the male genitalia (p.201).

 

ID Keys

Lower 1952: 211–212

 

Diagnosis References

Kirkaldy, G.W. 1906. Leafhoppers and their natural enemies. Bulletin of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association Experimental Station Entomological Series 1(9): 271-479 [361–362]

Lower, H.F. 1952. A revision of Australian species previously referred to the genus Empoasca (Cicadellidae: Homoptera). Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 76(5-6): 190-221 [201, 214–215]

 

History of changes

Published	As part of group	Action Date	Action Type	Compiler(s)
26-Jun-2023	MEMBRACOIDEA	26-Jun-2023	MODIFIED
10-May-2022	CICADOMORPHA	24-May-2023	MODIFIED
02-Jun-2021	AUCHENORRHYNCHA	26-Jun-2023	MODIFIED
05-Dec-2019	CICADELLIDAE Latreille, 1825	26-Jun-2023	MODIFIED	Dr Murray Fletcher
17-Feb-2015	Empoascini Distant, 1908	26-Jun-2023	MODIFIED	Dr Murray Fletcher
13-Oct-2014	Empoascini Distant, 1908	26-Jun-2023	MODIFIED	Dr Murray Fletcher
05-Dec-2019		26-Jun-2023	MODIFIED
		26-Jun-2023	MODIFIED