Genus Brunotartessus F. Evans, 1981

Brunotartessus fulvus (Walker), type species of Brunotartessus F. Evans.

© Copyright Murray Fletcher, Orange Agricultural Institute.

Museums

Regional Maps

• Brunotartessus Evans, F. 1981. The Tartessinae of Australia, New Guinea and some adjacent Islands (Homoptera: Cicadellidae). Pacific Insects 23(1-2): 112-188 [130].

  Type species:

   Bythoscopus fulvus Walker, 1851 by original designation.

Introduction

This small genus of seven mainly pale brown species is found in Australia and New Guinea. The type species, B. fulvus, is one of the most widespread and best known species of Tartessini in Australia and is distinctively coloured with pale yellow dorsum contrasting with dark smoky brown forewings. Specimens of what appears to be the single New Guinean species, B. aroaensis F. Evans, are known from the Northern Territory but they may represent an undescribed species since there is some variation in the shape of the aedeagus from that illustrated for B. aroaensis from PNG.

Distribution

States

Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Victoria, Western Australia

IBRA and IMCRA regions

IBRA

ACT, NSW, NT, Qld, SA, Vic, WA: Avon Wheatbelt (AW), Brigalow Belt South (BBS), Central Ranges (CR), Esperance Plains (ESP), Geraldton Sandplains (GS), Nandewar (NAN), New England Tablelands (NET), NSW North Coast (NNC), NSW South Western Slopes (NSS), Riverina (RIV), Sydney Basin (SB), South Eastern Highlands (SEH), South Eastern Queensland (SEQ), Swan Coastal Plain (SWA), Tiwi Cobourg (TIW) ; NSW, NT, Qld, SA, Vic, WA: Arnhem Coast (ARC), Brigalow Belt North (BBN), Central Kimberley (CK), Cape York Peninsula (CYP), Darwin Coastal (DAC), Einasleigh Uplands (EIU), Gascoyne (GAS), Mount Isa Inlier (MII), Mulga Lands (ML), Ord Victoria Plain (OVP), Pine Creek (PCK), Pilbara (PIL), Tanami (TAN), Victoria Bonaparte (VB), Wet Tropics (WT)

Diagnosis

Sturdy, brown or brown and yellow insects, sometimes ventrally black, 8–10 mm in length. Crown longest against the eyes, together with pronotum and scutellum, brown or yellow. Tegmen pale hyaline brown, sometimes with whitish or vitreous areas. Male genitalia: pygophore rounded apically with a pair of short, brown curved processes arising from the inner margin and seemingly not associated with the Xth segment; aedeagus columnar with subapical or apical acute processes. Female: VIIth abdominal sternum with sides of hind margin sloping towards the medially notched apex (Evans 1981).

ID Keys

Evans 1981: 115–118

Diagnosis References

Evans, F. 1981. The Tartessinae of Australia, New Guinea and some adjacent Islands (Homoptera: Cicadellidae). Pacific Insects 23(1-2): 112-188 [130]

History of changes