Species Eurymelops bicolor (Burmeister, 1841)

Eurymelops bicolor (Burmeister), adult, typical colour form.

© Copyright Dave Gray, c/- NSW Agricultural Scientific Collections Unit, Orange.

Eurymelops bicolor (Burmeister), adult, colour variant.

© Copyright Murray Fletcher, Orange Agricultural Institute.

Eurymelops bicolor (Burmeister), adult, colour variant.

© Copyright Murray Fletcher, Orange Agricultural Institute.

Museums

Regional Maps

• Eurymela bicolor Burmeister, H.C.C. 1841. Rhynchota. No. 6. Genera Insectorum 1: 13 [13].

  Type data:

   Syntype(s) whereabouts unknown sex, quantity unknown, New Holland.
• Eurymela basalis Walker, F. 1851. List of the Specimens of Homopterous Insects in the Collection of the British Museum. London : British Museum (Natural History) Vol. 3 pp. 637-907. [640].

  Type data:

   Holotype BMNH sex? (Mr Argent's colln.), New Holland.

Taxonomic Decision for Synonymy

• Dohrn, F.A. 1859. Homoptera. Catalogus Hemipterorum. Stettin : Entomologischen Verein zu Stettin 102 pp. [85] (synonymy of E. basalis)

Generic Combinations

• Eurymelops bicolor (Burmeister, 1841). —
  Kirkaldy, G.W. 1906. Leafhoppers and their natural enemies. Bulletin of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association Experimental Station Entomological Series 1(9): 271-479 [354]

Introduction

This two-toned species is found in eastern Australia and is quite variable in colour with red or orange being limited to the face and basal costal area of the tegmen or covering the entire front half of the body. Specimens in collections are from New South Wales and Queensland but Evans (1933, 1966) also records the species from Victoria and South Australia without providing details of localities.

Distribution

States

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

IBRA and IMCRA regions

IBRA

ACT, NSW, Qld, SA, Vic: Brigalow Belt South (BBS), Cape York Peninsula (CYP), Darling Riverine Plains (DRP), Nandewar (NAN), New England Tablelands (NET), Sydney Basin (SB), South Eastern Highlands (SEH), South Eastern Queensland (SEQ)

Ecological Descriptors

All stages: gregarious, myrmecophilous, phloem feeder.

Diagnosis

Vertice retuso, fronte arcuato-carlnata, lateribus declivls. Coeruleo-nigra, genis, elytrorum basi corporeque, ano excepto, incarnatis. Long. 4—5.'"
var. (a) verticis macula, frontis suturae superiores, pronotlque margo totus incarnati ♂.
var. (b) vertex concolor, pronoti margine summo colorato; elytrorum basis externa tantum incarnata. ♀
Dlffert haec specles a sequentibus statura capitis omnino singulari, oculis majoribus magis prominulis, tibiisque posticis supra spinam externam obsolete denticulatis; tarsorum posticorum articulus basalis supra pallidus. Varietates duas, quas adduxi, pro speciebus diversis habere non possum, cum tota statura atque corporis partium relationes inter se omnino congruant. ♂ minor, ♀. major; praeterea sexus genitalium structura facile distinguitur (Burmeister 1838).

Head metallic blue or greenish black, with the maxillary plates and the dorsal margin of the frons red, or the whole head entirely red. Pronotum either entirely bluish or greenish black, or black with the posterior margin red. Scutellum bluish or greenish black; in some specimens there is a red spot in the middle. Tegmen entirely a metallic greenish or bluish black with the anterior costal area red, or all the anterior half of the tegmen, but for a black spot on the clavus, red, and the posterior half metallic blue. These are the two commonest combinations of red and blue found in this species but there are many others. Legs, usually entirely black, coxae and anterior halves of femora of fore legs occasionally red. Abdomen ventral surface red. Length 14 mm (Evans 1933).

ID Keys

Evans 1966: 73

Diagnosis References

Evans, J.W. 1933. A revision of the Eurymelini (Homoptera: Bythoscopidae). Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia 57: 73-90 [82]

Evans, J.W. 1966. The leafhoppers and froghoppers of Australia and New Zealand. Memoirs of the Australian Museum 12: 1-347 [73]

History of changes