Species Idioscopus clypealis (Lethierry, 1889)

Idioscopus clypealis (Lethierry), adult.

© Copyright Murray Fletcher, Orange Agricultural Institute.

Idioscopus clypealis (Lethierry), face of head, male.

© Copyright Murray Fletcher, Orange Agricultural Institute.

Idioscopus clypealis (Lethierry), face of head, female.

© Copyright Murray Fletcher, Orange Agricultural Institute.

Museums

Regional Maps

• Idiocerus clypealis Lethierry, L.F. 1889. Definitions of three new Homoptera. Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal 58: 252-253 [252].

  Type data:

   Status unknown, whereabouts unknown sex, quantity unknown, locality unknown.
• Idiocerus nigroclypeatus Melichar, L. 1903. Homopteren-Fauna von Ceylon. Berlin: Felix L. Dames. 248 pp. [148].

  Type data:

   Syntype(s) NHMW ♂ ♀, quantity unknown (coll.: i-iii.1902, Dr Uzel), Peradeniya, Sri Lanka.

Taxonomic Decision for Synonymy

• Distant, W.L. 1908. Rhynchota. — Vol. IV. Homoptera and Appendix. The Fauna of British India including Ceylon and Burma 4: 1-501 [187] (synonymy of I. nigroclypeatus)

Generic Combinations

• Idioscopus clypealis (Lethierry, 1889). —
  Baker, C.F. 1915. Studies in Philippine Jassoidea, IV: the Idiocerini of the Philippines. Philippine Journal of Science 10(D): 317-343 [339]

Introduction

This is a serious pest of mango, Mangifera indica L. (Anacardiaceae), from Pakistan to the Philippines and New Guinea and was first collected in Australian territory on Yam and Stephen Island, Torres Strait, in October 1990 and Darnley Island in November 1990. It was subsequently recorded on mainland Australia at Moreton on Cape York Peninsula, North Queensland in October 1999. It feeds by preference on the flowers. The dark anteclypeus is distinctive and the female bears two round dark spots on the face and two on the apex of the head. These spots are missing from the males.

Distribution

States

Queensland

IBRA and IMCRA regions

IBRA

Qld: Cape York Peninsula (CYP), Einasleigh Uplands (EIU)

Other Regions

Torres Strait Islands terrestrial, marine & freshwater

Ecological Descriptors

All stages: pest (associated flora: Mangifera indica Linnaeus, 1753 [ANACARDIACEAE] mango), phloem feeder.

Diagnosis

Coloration. Pale brown and ivory with greenish eyes. Face brown in centre, fading to ivory laterally and darkening towards anteclypeus which is black. Female with two round black spots between ocelli and two round black spots on apex of head near eyes, such spots absent from males. Pronotum and anterior half of scutellum brown, fading to ivory posteriorly. Tegmen dark brown, translucent, with ivory costal margin. Male genitalia. Pygofer short, rounded with apical margin extended posteriorly in dorsal half as triangular lobe. Subgenital plates elongate, narrow, parallel-sided, reaching to apex of pygofer lobe, lacking setae. Parameres apically elongate, reaching to three-quarters length of subgenital plates. Connective short, broadly Y-shaped, with arms strongly divergent then curved anteriorly to become almost parallel, slightly longer than stem. Aedeagus with prominent basal apodeme reaching three-quarters length of shaft which curves at base then runs parallel to apodeme, tapering in lateral and posterior views from base to apex which is sharply acute beyond attachments of processes. Two pairs of fine elongate apical processes extend towards base of shaft; inner pair very long, reaching beyond base of shaft; outer pair shorter than shaft, slightly sinuate and apically crossed in posterior view (Fletcher & Dangerfield 2002).

Diagnosis References

Fletcher, M.J. & Dangerfield, P.C. 2002. Idioscopus clypealis (Lethierry), a second new leafhopper pest of mango in Australia (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae: Idiocerinae). Australian Journal of Entomology 41(1): 35–38 [35–36]

History of changes