Species Diemoides smithtoniensis Evans, 1938

Museums

Regional Maps

• Diemoides smithtoniensis Evans, J.W. 1938. Australian Leafhoppers (Homoptera: Jassoidea): Part VIII. Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania 1938: 1-18 [13].

  Type data:

   Holotype AM ♀ (coll.: J.W. Evans), Smithton, Tasmania.

 

Generic Combinations

• Paralimnus smithtoniensis (Evans, 1938). —
  Evans, J.W. 1966. The leafhoppers and froghoppers of Australia and New Zealand. Memoirs of the Australian Museum 12: 1-347 [236]
• Diemoides smithtoniensis Evans, 1938. —
  Day, M.F. & Fletcher, M.J. 1994. An annotated catalogue of the Australian Cicadelloidea (Hemiptera: Auchenorrhyncha). Invertebrate Taxonomy 8: 1117-1288 [1212]

 

Introduction

This beautifully marked endemic species of leafhopper is found in Tasmania and the southeastern parts of the mainland. It was named after the type locality, Smithton in Tasmania.

 

Distribution

States

New South Wales, Tasmania, Victoria

Extra Distribution Information

Australian Endemic.

IBRA and IMCRA regions

IBRA

NSW, Tas, Vic: King (KIN), Sydney Basin (SB), South East Coastal Plain (SCP), South East Corner (SEC), South Eastern Highlands (SEH), Tasmanian Central Highlands (TCH), Tasmanian Northern Slopes (TNS), Tasmanian South East (TSE), Tasmanian Southern Ranges (TSR), Tasmanian West (TWE)

Ecological Descriptors

All stages: phloem feeder.

 

Diagnosis

Head ventrally pale brown, apical margin with three black and two white transverse stripes; ocelli red. Crown white suffused with pink medially. Pronotum bright red anteriorly, grey posteriorly. Scutellum with the anterior angles red, the remainder white. Tegmen hyaline with brown areas between the veins and the costal margin partly white; border of tegmen and anal veins red, other veins brown. Thorax and abdomen ventral surface black with white markings. Legs white with black markings. Length 4 mm (Evans 1938).

The connective in D. smithtoniensis is unusual in having the stem elongated and much longer than the lateral arms. In the other known species of the genus, the stem is not so elongated and usually only slightly longer than the arms, except in D. anomalus Fletcher in which the arms are longer than the stem. The structure of the subgenital plates is also unusual amongst leafhoppers with the apical section diverted laterally, somewhat membranous and bearing macrosetae on its inner margin. This feature is also found in D. smithersi Fletcher, D. brunneus Fletcher and D. sueshephardae Fletcher (Fletcher 2017).

 

ID Keys

Fletcher 2017: 313–314

 

Diagnosis References

Evans, J.W. 1938. Australian Leafhoppers (Homoptera: Jassoidea): Part VIII. Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania 1938: 1-18 [13]

Fletcher, M.J. 2017. Revision of the genus Diemoides Evans with description of eight new species (Hemiptera: Auchenorrhyncha: Cicadellidae: Deltocephalinae). Entomologica Americana 122(3): 311–325 [Dated 2016 but published April 2017] [314]

 

History of changes

Published	As part of group	Action Date	Action Type	Compiler(s)
05-Dec-2019	Deltocephalinae Dallas, 1870	11-Apr-2017	MODIFIED	Dr Murray Fletcher
05-Dec-2019		01-Nov-2013	MODIFIED
05-Dec-2019		16-May-2012	MODIFIED
05-Dec-2019		05-Aug-2011	MODIFIED
		12-Feb-2010	(import)