Species Exitianus indicus (Distant, 1908)

Exitianus indicus (Distant), adult from East Timor.

© Copyright Murray Fletcher, Orange Agricultural Institute.

Museums

Regional Maps

• Athysanus indicus Distant, W.L. 1908. The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma. Rhynchota. London : Taylor & Francis Vol. 4 xv 501 pp. [344].

  Type data:

   
  Syntype(s) BMNH sex, quantity unknown, Calcutta, India; BMNH sex, quantity unknown (Lefroy), Pusa, Bengal; BMNH sex, quantity unknown (Lefroy), Palamau, Bengal; IM sex, quantity unknown, Chutri Gouri, Nepal Terai.
• Athysanus atkinsoni Distant, W.L. 1908. The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma. Rhynchota. London : Taylor & Francis Vol. 4 xv 501 pp. [345].

  Type data:

   
  Syntype(s) BMNH sex, quantity unknown (Atkinson coll.), Calcutta, India; BMNH sex, quantity unknown (Lefroy), Pusa, Bengal; BMNH sex, quantity unknown (Green), Peradeniya, Sri Lanka.

Taxonomic Decision for Synonymy

• Ross, H.H. 1968. The evolution and dispersal of the grassland leafhopper Exitianus with keys to the Old World species. Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) Entomology 22(1): 1-30 [12]

Generic Combinations

• Exitianus indicus (Distant, 1908). —
  Oman, P.W. 1936. A generic revision of American Bythoscopinae and South American Jassinae. Kansas University Science Bulletin 24: 343-420 [383]

Introduction

The distribution of this species, as given by Ross (1968) is India, Sri Lanka, Taiwan and Japan. He tentatively suggested a synonymy between E. indicus and E. fusconervosus (Motschulsky) from Sri Lanka but Metcalf (1968: 323) lists the two species separately with additional distributional records for both, including two records of E. indicus from Australian territory. The first, from the Australian Capital Territory, was created by Helson (1951) and almost certainly applies to E. plebeius (Kirkaldy). The second is from Christmas Island by Izzard (1936). Specimens in SAM collected by G.F. Gross in "Portugese Timor" have been identified by the compiler of these pages as E. indicus and there is no reason to doubt Izzard's identification of the species from Christmas Island.

Distribution

Other Regions

Christmas Island terrestrial & freshwater

Ecological Descriptors

All stages: phloem feeder.

Diagnosis

Vertex ochraceous, a transvers black fascia between the eyes; pronotum ochraceous, the posterior disc dark greyish, an arcuate impressed line near the anterior margin on which are more or less distinct brownish or piceous dots; scutellum ochraceous; face with transverse brown striae on each lateral area; femora with longitudinal linear brownish streaks; tegmina greyish subhyaline, here and there suffused with pale dull ochraceous, the veins pale brownish; vertex subangularly rounded in front, between the black transverse fascia and base a more or less distinct central longitudinal line; scutellum slightly granulose on basal area, transversely impressed before apical area which is somewhat closely wrinkled; face centrally moderately flattened and indistinctly finely granulose, this area widening towards clypeus. Length incl. tegm. 4 to 5 mm (Distant 1908).

Diagnosis References

Distant, W.L. 1908. The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma. Rhynchota. London : Taylor & Francis Vol. 4 xv 501 pp. [344–345]

General References

Helson, G.A.H. 1951. The transmission of witches' broom virus disease of lucerne by the common brown leafhopper, Orosius argentatus (Evans). Australian Journal of Scientific Research B 4: 115–124 [116]

Izzard, R.J. 1936. The Hemiptera of Christmas Island. Annals and Magazine of Natural History 10 17: 577-600 [597]

Metcalf, Z.P. 1968. General Catalogue of the Homoptera. Fascicle VI, Cicadelloidea. Part 10, Euscelidae. Raleigh N.C. : North Carolina State College 2695 pp. [323]

Ross, H.H. 1968. The evolution and dispersal of the grassland leafhopper Exitianus with keys to the Old World species. Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) Entomology 22(1): 1-30 [12]

History of changes