Species Exitianus plebeius (Kirkaldy, 1906)

Museums

Regional Maps

• Nephotettix plebeius Kirkaldy, G.W. 1906. Leafhoppers and their natural enemies. Bulletin of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association Experimental Station Entomological Series 1(9): 271-479 [331].

  Type data:

   Lectotype BPBM ♂, Cairns, Queensland.

  Subsequent designation references:

  Fletcher, M.J. & Condello, A.A. 1993. Lectotype designations and new synonymies for G. W. Kirkaldy's Australian Deltocephalinae (Homoptera: Cicadellidae) held in the B.P. Bishop Museum, Honolulu. General and Applied Entomology 25: 35-59 [50].
• Eutettix norrisi Evans, J.W. 1938. Australian Leafhoppers (Homoptera: Jassoidea): Part VIII. Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania 1938: 1-18 [14].

  Type data:

   Holotype AM ♂, Crawley, Western Australia.
• Euscelis transversus Metcalf, Z.P. 1946. Homoptera. Fulgoroidea and Jassoidea of Guam. Bulletin of the Bernice P. Bishop Museum 189: 105-148 [122].

  Type data:

   Holotype BPBM ♀, Piti, Guam.

 

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 [15] (synonymy of E. norrisi and E. transversus)

 

Generic Combinations

• Exitianus plebeius (Kirkaldy, 1906). —
  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 [15]

 

Introduction

This species is very common and widespread throughout mainland Australia. It has also been recorded in various Pacific island groups, including the Kermadec Islands of New Zealand. It is not known as an economic pest nor as a vector of plant pathogens.

 

Distribution

States

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

Extra Distribution Information

Norfolk Is., Samoa, Kermadec Islands, (NZ).

IBRA and IMCRA regions

IBRA

ACT, NSW, NT, Qld, SA, Vic, WA: Brigalow Belt North (BBN), Brigalow Belt South (BBS), Broken Hill Complex (BHC), Channel Country (CHC), Central Mackay Coast (CMC), Cobar Peneplain (CP), Cape York Peninsula (CYP), Davenport Murchison Ranges (DMR), Darling Riverine Plains (DRP), Einasleigh Uplands (EIU), Finke (FIN), Geraldton Sandplains (GS), Gulf Plains (GUP), Murray Darling Depression (MDD), Mulga Lands (ML), Nandewar (NAN), New England Tablelands (NET), Northern Kimberley (NK), NSW North Coast (NNC), Ord Victoria Plain (OVP), Pilbara (PIL), Riverina (RIV), Sydney Basin (SB), South Eastern Highlands (SEH), South Eastern Queensland (SEQ), Swan Coastal Plain (SWA), Victoria Bonaparte (VB), Wet Tropics (WT)

Other Regions

Lord Howe Island terrestrial & freshwater, Norfolk Island terrestrial & freshwater, Torres Strait Islands terrestrial, marine & freshwater

Ecological Descriptors

All stages: graminivore, phloem feeder.

 

Diagnosis

Pale testaceous; a blackish transverse stripe on the vertex extending from eye to eye. immediately below the ocelli, not curving parallel with anterior margin but nearly straight across. Frons pale testaceous from the base of the clypeus long-triangularly to base of frons; on each side of this to lateral margins of frons about 8 parallel, transverse blackish lines on each side (sutures of clypeus, etc., sometimes infuscate.) Pronotum subanteriorly with a somewhat feeble, arched, repeatedly broken blackish transverse line extending from side to side. Scutellum with usually 2 pale brownish specks about the middle. Tegmina hvaline pale cinereous, nervures brownish. Bristles on legs biackish brown. Vertex twice as wide as long, rounded apically; frons broad, not widening from basal margin to antennal articulation, about two and a quarter times as wide as the base of the clypeus; clypeus a little broader than lorae; temples very narrow. Pronotum longer than the head, posterior margin truncate. First apical cell basally in a line with the base of the exterior subapical cell and much longer than it; second apical cell 5-hedral, sides more or less straight (except the apical margin). Male valve about three-fourths of the length of the 7th abdominal sternite (which is apically truncate) and about one-third of the length of the plates which are furnished with bristly hairs. Pygofers about the same length as, or a little longer than the plates, furnished with bristly hairs. Female: 7th sternite about twice as long as the 6th. longitudinally sulcate and apicallv notched in the middle to admit base of sawcase; pygofers about 4 times as long as 7th sternite, furnished with granules which emit short bristlv hairs; ovipositor longer than the pygofers. Length (male) 4 7/8–5 1/8 mm; (female) 5½–5 7/8 mm. (Kirkaldy 1906).

 

Diagnosis References

Kirkaldy, G.W. 1906. Leafhoppers and their natural enemies. Bulletin of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association Experimental Station Entomological Series 1(9): 271-479 [331–332]

 

History of changes

Published	As part of group	Action Date	Action Type	Compiler(s)
05-Dec-2019		01-Nov-2013	MODIFIED
05-Dec-2019		30-Nov-2012	MODIFIED
05-Dec-2019		16-May-2012	MODIFIED
05-Dec-2019		01-Jun-2011	MOVED
		12-Feb-2010	(import)