Species Jamella australiae Kirkaldy, 1906

Jamella australiae Kirkaldy, adult on Pandanus leaf.

© Copyright Clive Easton, Tweed Shire Council, NSW

Museums

Regional Maps

• Jamella australiae Kirkaldy, G.W. 1906. Leafhoppers and their natural enemies. Bulletin of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association Experimental Station Entomological Series 1(9): 271-479 [460].

  Type data:

   Lectotype BPBM ♂ (coll.: viii.1904, Koebele), Cairns, Queensland
  Comment: Medler (1990) listed 2 ♀♀ from Cairns, collected in August 1904 and 18 ♂♂, 18 ♀♀ from the same locality, collected on 16 July 1904, as paralectotypes. However, Kirkaldy (1906) only included August 1904 in his type data and this excludes the 36 specimens collected in July 1904 from the type series. The type series therefore comprises only the lectotype and two female paralectotypes, all collected at Cairns in August 1904 by Arthur Koebele.

  Subsequent designation references:

  Medler, J.T. 1990. Review of Jamella Kirkaldy and Malleja, gen. nov. in Australia and New Guinea, with descriptions of new species (Homoptera: Flatidae). Invertebrate Taxonomy 3: 995-1004 [998].

Introduction

This species was originally distributed in the far north of Queensland but the introduction of Pandanus trees to augment landscaping in coastal areas of northeast New South Wales has also spread the planthopper to New South Wales where it has become a significant pest of Pandanus.

Distribution

States

New South Wales, Queensland

IBRA and IMCRA regions

IBRA

NSW, Qld: Cape York Peninsula (CYP), South Eastern Queensland (SEQ), Wet Tropics (WT)

Ecological Descriptors

All stages: pest, phloem feeder.

Diagnosis

Testaceous; tegmina pale cinereo-testaceous, veins, crossveins and tiny specks in many of the cells pale brownish, sometime with a reddish tinge. Length: 9–9.5 mm. (Kirkaldy 1906).

Overall appearance pale brown, with tegmina somewhat lighter color than head and thorax; sides of pronotum dark brown; veins and crossveins brown with reddish tinge, membrane opaque brown, with small red brown flecks in random pattern. Female segment X oval, diameter 5.0 mm. Male genitalia. Dorsoapical margin of pygofer convex, apical margin of anal segment concave, lateral margins acute; aedeagus with short upcurved apical process. The U-shaped concavity of the apex of anal segment enables easy recognition of this species without recourse to dissection (Medler 1990).

ID Keys

Medler 1990: 998

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 [460]

Medler, J.T. 1990. Review of Jamella Kirkaldy and Malleja, gen. nov. in Australia and New Guinea, with descriptions of new species (Homoptera: Flatidae). Invertebrate Taxonomy 3: 995-1004 [998]

History of changes