Species Gelastocephalus ornithoides Kirkaldy, 1906

Gelastocephalus ornithoides Kirkaldy, adult

© Copyright Birgit Löcker, Orange Agricultural Institute

Museums

Regional Maps

• Gelastocephalus ornithoides Kirkaldy, G.W. 1906. Leafhoppers and their natural enemies. Bulletin of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association Experimental Station Entomological Series 1(9): 271-479 [402].

  Type data:

   Syntype(s) BPBM sex, quantity unknown (coll.: i.1905), Sydney, New South Wales
  Comment: Löcker et al. (2006) were unable to find a male syntype although Kirkaldy (1906) indicated that he had a male; for this reason, no lectotype designation was made.
• Tarberus semicarinatus Jacobi, A. 1928. Results of Dr E. Mjöberg's Swedish Scientific Expeditions to Australia 1910-1913. Rhynchota, Homoptera. 1. Fulgoridae und Cercopidae. Arkiv för Zoologi 19A(28): 1-50 [37].

  Type data:

   Holotype NHRM ♀ (this was recognised as a holotype by monotypy by Löcker et al. (2006)), Malanda, Queensland.

Taxonomic Decision for Synonymy

• Fennah, R.G. 1969. Fulgoroidea (Homoptera) from New Caledonia and the Loyalty Islands. Pacific Insects Monographs 21: 1-116 [8] (synonymy of Tarberus semicarinatus Jacobi)

Introduction

This species is widely distributed along the eastern coastline of Australia from near Cairns in North Queensland to Berry, South of Sydney in New South Wales. One specimen was collected from Melaleuca nodosa (Sol. ex Gaertn.) Sm. (Myrtaceae).

Distribution

States

New South Wales, Queensland

IBRA and IMCRA regions

IBRA

NSW, Qld: NSW North Coast (NNC), Sydney Basin (SB), South Eastern Queensland (SEQ), Wet Tropics (WT)

Ecological Descriptors

Adult: phloem feeder.

Extra Ecological Information

Nymph might be phloem feeder or fungivore.

Diagnosis

Colour. Legs light brown; abdominal sternites mid brown, intersegmental membranes pale yellowish. Morphology. Body length. ♂ 3.0–4.3 mm. Head. Vertex 1.3–1.5× longer than wide, produced before eyes by 1/2–3/4 of an eye length; median carina incomplete, less than 1/4 as long as vertex. Frons 1.5–1.9× longer than wide, position of maximum width around or distinctly ventrad of centre of frontoclypeal suture; lateral carinae slightly s-shaped or convex (although rectilinear apically). Frontoclypeal suture semicircular, median part not reaching lower margin of antennal scape; lateral carinae on postclypeus absent or evanescent. Thorax. Pronotum with slightly sinuate carinae; hind margin right or acutely angled. Forewing 3–3.5× longer than wide; costa with 18–25 tubercles; r–m1 basad of or at same level as fork of MA–MP; position of icu at CuP distad of or at same level as apex of clavus; 10 (rarely nine) apical cells. Hind leg: tibia with 2–4 small lateral spines (without large lateral spines); six apical teeth in row interrupted by a wide gap; 1st tarsomere with 7(–9) apical teeth and 2(–3) platellae; 2nd tarsomere with seven apical teeth and five platellae. Male genitalia. Aedeagus with a long spine, straight and thickened in basal 2/3, then turning 90° and narrowing towards apex, and a broad, ventral sclerotised ridge bearing a triangular extension about midlength; flagellum unarmed. (Löcker et al. 2006)

ID Keys

Löcker et al. 2006: 105

Diagnosis References

Löcker, B., Fletcher, M.J., Larivière, M.-C., Gurr, G.M., Holzinger, W.E. & Löcker, H. 2006. Taxonomic and phylogenetic revision of the Gelastocephalini (Hemiptera: Cixiidae). Invertebrate Systematics 20: 59-160 [106]

General References

Löcker, B., Fletcher, M.J., Larivière, M.-C., Gurr, G.M., Holzinger, W.E. & Löcker, H. 2006. Taxonomic and phylogenetic revision of the Gelastocephalini (Hemiptera: Cixiidae). Invertebrate Systematics 20: 59-160 [106]

History of changes