Species Ledropsis froggatti Distant, 1907

Museums

Regional Maps

• Ledropsis frogatti Distant, W.L. 1907. Contributions to a knowledge of the Ledrinae. Annales de la Société Entomologique de Belgique (Comptes-rendus) 51: 185-197 [192] [original spelling; the collector was W.W. Froggatt and the original spelling "Frogatti" was emended to "froggatti" by Evans (1966)].

  Type data:

   Syntype(s) BMNH sex, quantity unknown (coll: W.W. Froggatt), Sydney, New South Wales.
• Ledropsis crocina Distant, W.L. 1917. Descriptions of some Ethiopian and Australian Homoptera. Annals and Magazine of Natural History 8 20: 186-191 [188].

  Type data:

   Syntype(s) BMNH 2 ♂ (coll.: xii.1892, Lea), Tamworth, New South Wales.

 

Taxonomic Decision for Synonymy

• Evans, J.W. 1966. The leafhoppers and froghoppers of Australia and New Zealand. Memoirs of the Australian Museum 12: 1-347 [99]

 

Introduction

This species is reasonably common along the eastern coastal regions of mainland Australia from SE Queensland to Victoria. It is frequently collected on the NSW Christmas Bush, Ceratopetalum gummiferum Sm. (Cunoniaceae) but has also been found on species of Leptospermum Forst. & Forst. (Myrtaceae). It aligns itself against the small twigs with its concave lower surface flush against the twig to give the appearance of a slight swelling of the twig itself. In proposing the synonymy, Evans (1966) incorrectly gave priority to L. crocina over L. froggatti. Day & Fletcher (1994) gave priority to L. froggatti. Jones & Deitz (2009) regarded the two species as being separate despite Evans (1966) synonymy and they also suggested that the Australian species may not be congeneric with L. cancroma and may, in fact, be more appropriately placed in Ezrana Distant and suggested that a species level revision of the distinctive Australian Ledrini fauna was needed.

 

Distribution

States

New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria

Extra Distribution Information

Australian Endemic.

IBRA and IMCRA regions

IBRA

NSW, Qld, Vic: NSW North Coast (NNC), Sydney Basin (SB), South East Coastal Plain (SCP), South Eastern Queensland (SEQ)

Ecological Descriptors

All stages: phloem feeder (associated flora: Ceratopetalum gummiferum Sm. [CUNONIACEAE] Christmas Bush; Leptospermum sp. [MYRTACEAE] Tea-tree).

 

Diagnosis

Pale tawny-brown, more or less finely spotted or suffused with sanguineous; scutellum with a black spot at each basai angle; lateral margins of face from near eyes to clypeus, fuscous; vertex of head about as long as pronotum and scutellum together, lateral areas downwardly inclined, centrally longitudinally ridged, lateral margins gradually narrowing from eyes to apex, the whole surface considerably mottled with sanguineous; pronotum gibbous at base, posterior margin strongly subangularly sinuate, the lateral margins straight, the disk downwardly inclined on each side; scutellum testaceous, a large black spot at each basal angle, and two very small black spots on disk; tibiae speckled with sanguineous; tegmina very pale testaceous on about basai half, the apical areas more pale tawny-brown. Long. incl. tegm. 11 mm. (Distant 1907).

 

Diagnosis References

Distant, W.L. 1907. Contributions to a knowledge of the Ledrinae. Annales de la Société Entomologique de Belgique (Comptes-rendus) 51: 185-197 [192]

 

General References

Day, M.F. & Fletcher, M.J. 1994. An annotated catalogue of the Australian Cicadelloidea (Hemiptera: Auchenorrhyncha). Invertebrate Taxonomy 8: 1117-1288 [1142]

Evans, J.W. 1966. The leafhoppers and froghoppers of Australia and New Zealand. Memoirs of the Australian Museum 12: 1-347 [99]

Jones, J.R. & Deitz, L.L. 2009. Phylogeny and systematics of the leafhopper subfamily Ledrinae (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae). Zootaxa (2186): 1–120 [40]

 

History of changes

Published	As part of group	Action Date	Action Type	Compiler(s)
26-Jun-2023	MEMBRACOIDEA	26-Jun-2023	MODIFIED
10-May-2022	CICADOMORPHA	24-May-2023	MODIFIED
02-Jun-2021	AUCHENORRHYNCHA	26-Jun-2023	MODIFIED
05-Dec-2019	CICADELLIDAE Latreille, 1825	26-Jun-2023	MODIFIED	Dr Murray Fletcher
05-Dec-2019		26-Jun-2023	MODIFIED
		26-Jun-2023	MODIFIED