Species Distantinus melichari (Kirkaldy, 1906)

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Regional Maps

• Delphacodes melichari Kirkaldy, G.W. 1906. Two new Homoptera from Africa, and synonymical notes. The Canadian Entomologist 38: 154-156 [156] [replacement name; for Liburnia fumipennis].
• Liburnia fumipennis Melichar, L. 1903. Homopteren-Fauna von Ceylon. Berlin: Felix L. Dames. 248 pp. [97] [junior homonym; of Liburnia fumipennis Fieber].

  Type data:

   
  Syntype(s) whereabouts unknown ♂, ♀, quantity unknown (coll: 14.ii.1902, Dr Uzel), Henaratgoda, Sri Lanka; whereabouts unknown ♂, ♀, quantity unknown (coll: i - ii.1902, Dr Uzel), Peradeniya, Sri Lanka.
• Hadeodelphax persephone Kirkaldy, G.W. 1907. Leafhoppers — Supplement (Hemiptera). Bulletin of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association Experimental Station Entomological Series 3: 1-186 [141].

  Type data:

   Syntype(s) BPBM ♂, ♀, quantity unknown (coll.: vii-viii.1904, Perkins), Cairns, Queensland.
• Sardia pronotalis Distant, W.L. 1916. Rhynchota, Homoptera Appendix. The Fauna of British India including Ceylon and Burma 6: 1-248 [141].

  Type data:

   Syntype(s) BMNH sex, quantity unknown (coll.: E.E. Green), Peradeniya, Sri Lanka.

Taxonomic Decision for Synonymy

• Fennah, R.G. 1965. Delphacidae from Australia and New Zealand (Homoptera: Fulgoroidea). Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) Entomology 17(1): 1-59 [44] (synonymy of L. fumipennis, S. pronotalis)
• Fennah, R.G. 1971. Homoptera: Fulgoroidea. Supplement. Insects of Micronesia 6(8): 563–609 [573] (synonymy of H. persephone)

Generic Combinations

• Distantinus melichari (Kirkaldy, 1906). —
  Bellis, G.A. & Donaldson, J.F. 2015. Reassessment of some of Kirkaldy's Australian species of Delphacini (Hemiptera: Delphacidae: Delphacinae). Austral Entomology 1-13 [First published on line 17 December 2015 with pagination 1–13. Print version published August 2016, vol 55(3), 247-260] [12]
• Sardia persephone (Kirkaldy, 1907). —
  Kirkaldy, G.W. 1907. Further remarks principally on some saccharicolous Fulgoroidea (Hem.). Annales de la Société Entomologique de Belgique (Comptes-rendus) 51: 300-302 [302]
• Matutinus persephone (Kirkaldy, 1907). —
  Fennah, R.G. 1972. A revision of the genus Matutinus Distant (Homoptera: Fulgoroidea: Delphacidae). Bulletin of Entomological Research 61: 421-461 [430]

Introduction

This species is dark in colour with pale carinae on the head. First described from Sri Lanka by Melichar (1903), the species was subsequently also described by Kirkaldy (1907) from Cairns, in the wet tropics of North Queensland. Kirkaldy's name took priority as Melichar's was preoccupied. Fennah (1965) figured the head and tegmen of a female from Lawes in SE Queensland.

Distribution

States

Queensland

IBRA and IMCRA regions

IBRA

Qld: South Eastern Queensland (SEQ), Wet Tropics (WT)

Ecological Descriptors

All stages: phloem feeder.

Diagnosis

Black; vertex, frontal keels dorsally, keels of pronotum and sides of the latter, central keel and posterior angle of scutellum, commissure (interrupted in the middle), whitish. Antennae and legs whitish or whitish testaceous. Tegmina dark smoky, first and second apical cells and the apex of the subcostal cell, hyaline, veins blackish-brown; wings hyaline, veins blackish-brown. The pronotum and scutellum are often more or less decolored (sometimes there are two black specks on apical margin of vertex). The vertex proper (basal compartment) does not extend anteriorly so far as the apical margin of the eyes. Male: genital segments dark brownish. Inside margin of pygophor sinuate. The aedeagus serrate marginally. The genital styles are very irregular in form. Female: genital segments dark brownish, ovipositor-sheath paler. Length (brach.) 3. (macr.) 3.5–4 mm. (Kirkaldy 1907, as Hadeodelphax persephone)

Diagnosis References

Kirkaldy, G.W. 1907. Leafhoppers — Supplement (Hemiptera). Bulletin of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association Experimental Station Entomological Series 3: 1-186 [141]

History of changes