Genus Hishimonus Ishihara, 1953

Museums

Regional Maps

• Hishimonus Ishihara, T. 1953. A tentative checklist of the superfamily Cicadelloidea of Japan (Homoptera). Scientific Reports of the Matsuyama Agricultural College 11: 1-72 [38].

  Type species:

   Thamnotettix sellata Uhler, 1896 by original designation.

Introduction

The Australian fauna of this primarily Oriental genus was revised by Fletcher & Dai (2013) who added three new species and a new species record to the fauna and excluded H. melaleucae Kirkaldy, although no new placement has yet been made for that species. The genus includes three species known to transmit plant diseases overseas although no Australian species is known to transmit plant pathogens.

The genus was revised by Knight (1970) who gave Thamnotettix sellata Uhler as the type species. Ishihara (1953) designated Acocephala disciguttus Walker, 1857 as the type species and listed T. sellatus as a synonym. Knight (1970) notes that an examination of Walker's original type material of A. discigutta demonstrates that Ishihara (1953) misidentified the species so that the type species of Hishimonus is T. sellata with Hishimonus discigutta, sensu Ishihara (1953) as a junior synonym. Ishihara realised his mistake and used T. sellatus as the name of the type species in subsequent publications.

Distribution

States

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

IBRA and IMCRA regions

IBRA

ACT, NSW, NT, Qld, SA, Vic, WA: Daly Basin (DAB) ; ACT, NSW, Qld, SA, Vic, WA: Brigalow Belt North (BBN), Cape York Peninsula (CYP), Darwin Coastal (DAC), Davenport Murchison Ranges (DMR), Flinders Lofty Block (FLB), Gulf Plains (GUP), Great Victoria Desert (GVD), Murchison (MUR), Pine Creek (PCK), Sydney Basin (SB), South East Coastal Plain (SCP), South Eastern Highlands (SEH), South Eastern Queensland (SEQ), Swan Coastal Plain (SWA), Victoria Bonaparte (VB), Wet Tropics (WT)

Other Regions

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

Diagnosis

Small species, 3–4 mm in length, testaceous, greenish or yellow in colour, often marked with brown, legs and venter stramineous, forewings silvery white with dark brown mottling and usually with a large brown semicircular spot against midlength of commissural margin forming, when wings at rest, a conspicuous circular spot with that of opposite wing. Head equal in width to pronotum, slightly longer medially than next eye with anterior margin broadly rounded; narrowly rounded to face; frontoclypeus longer than wide; clypeal suture distinct; anteclypeus elongate with sides parallel over basal two thirds, slightly expanded at apex; genal margins concave beneath eyes; ocelli on anterior margin, contiguous with eyes or separated by distance less than own diameter; a shallow transverse furrow on vertex between ocelli; vertex posterior to furrow glabrous, face and vertex anterior to furrow shagreened. Pronotum approximately twice length of vertex, sides short, posterior margin transverse or shallowly concave; surface glabrous, transversely and feebly striate. Scutellum wider than long, slightly shorter than pronotum. Forewings with claval veins separate, a cross vein near midlength; inner subapical cell open basally; outer subapical cell elongate with ends transverse; appendix well developed. Fore femur with setae distributed as follows: 2 AD at apex, well developed AM1, 9–13 ic, 6–8 PV and 12–13 short AV. Fore tibia with setae distributed as follows: 4 AD evenly spaced along length with black spot at base of each, single PD near apex and continuous line of PV extending throughout length. Apex of hind femora with setal formula 2.2.1. Male genitalia with pygophore acutely rounded posteriorly, with stout setae over posterior half, without processes, dorsal surface approximately one third total length; subgenital plates gradually or abruptly tapering posteriorly to membranous fingerlike process, with uniseriate row of stout setae laterally, becoming multiseriate basally, with more lateral row of long filamentous setae over apical half; connective Y-shaped with stem long or short; paramere terminating in posteriorly directed fingerlike process, preapical lobe present; aedeagus with two dorsally directed shafts each with gonopore near apex, with or without basal processes, usually with apical or preapical processes on shaft (Dai, Fletcher & Zhang 2013, modified from Knight 1970).

Diagnosis References

Dai, W., Fletcher, M.J. & Zhang, Y.L. 2013. First records of the genus Hishimonus Ishihara from Thailand (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae: Deltocephalinae: Opsiini) including description of three new species. Zootaxa 3670(3): 301–316 [302]

Knight, W.J. 1970. A revision of the genus Hishimonus Ishihara. Suomen Hyönteistieteellinen Aikakauskirja 36(3): 125-139 [125–126]

General References

Fletcher, M.J. & Dai, W. 2013. The genus Hishimonus Ishihara in Australia (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae: Deltocephalinae: Opsiini) including description of three new species. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum - Nature 58: 421–431

Ishihara, T. 1953. A tentative checklist of the superfamily Cicadelloidea of Japan (Homoptera). Scientific Reports of the Matsuyama Agricultural College 11: 1-72 [38]

Knight, W.J. 1970. A revision of the genus Hishimonus Ishihara. Suomen Hyönteistieteellinen Aikakauskirja 36(3): 125-139 [126]

History of changes