Genus Epithalamium Kirkaldy, 1906

Epithalamium aziola Kirkaldy, type species of Epithalamium Kirkaldy.

© Copyright Murray Fletcher, Orange Agricultural Institute.

Museums

Regional Maps

• Epithalamium Kirkaldy, G.W. 1906. Leafhoppers and their natural enemies. Bulletin of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association Experimental Station Entomological Series 1(9): 271-479 [451].

  Type species:

   Epithalamium aziola Kirkaldy, 1906 by monotypy.

Introduction

This endemic genus contains two species of small delicate planthoppers. One was described from the Sydney basin and has been collected at a number of sites throughout that bioregion as well as from the jarrah forests of Western Australia. The second species is only known from the Darling Ranges in Western Australia.

Distribution

States

New South Wales, Western Australia

IBRA and IMCRA regions

IBRA

NSW, WA: Jarrah Forest (JF), Sydney Basin (SB), Swan Coastal Plain (SWA)

Diagnosis

The description provided by Kirkaldy (1906) was based on E. aziola Kirkaldy which has broad tegmina with one clear and two obscure subapical lines of crossveins but A. moirae Fletcher has much narrower tegmina with only one subapical line. Like Armacia, this genus has sparse longitudinal veins which makes the cells broad and quadrate rather than elongate but the radial vein does not branch until almost the level of the stigma.

Kirkaldy's (1906) description reads: "Differs from Armacia Stål by the radial vein not being forked near the base. The tegmina are broad, nearly as broad as long, and rounded apically; the radial vein is joined to a refurcation of the median by a slight, transverse vein, a little basal of the middle; apical of this the radial forks, the outer branch being joined almost immediately by a slight, transverse vein to the exterior subapical cell (which is curved and enc roaches on the costal cell apically). The median veins forks at aabout a third the length of the temen. There is a fairly regular subapical line, and two very irregular transverse lines basal of this."

ID Keys

Fletcher 2008: 108

Fletcher, M.J. (2008) Illustrated Key to the Described Genera of the family Ricaniidae found in Australia (Hemiptera: Fulgoromorpha) http://www1.dpi.nsw.gov.au/keys/fulgor/ricaniidae/ric00.htm

Diagnosis References

Fletcher, M.J. 2008. A key to the genera of Ricaniidae (Hemiptera: Fulgoromorpha) recorded in Australia with notes on the Australian fauna, including a new species of Epithalamium Kirkaldy. Australian Journal of Entomology 47: 107-120 [108, 113]

Kirkaldy, G.W. 1906. Leafhoppers and their natural enemies. Bulletin of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association Experimental Station Entomological Series 1(9): 271-479 [451]

History of changes