Species Lophops saccharacida (Kirkaldy, 1906)

Lophops saccharacida (Kirkaldy), adult.

© Copyright Murray Fletcher, Orange Agricultural Institute.

Museums

Regional Maps

• Astorga saccharacida Kirkaldy, G.W. 1906. Leafhoppers and their natural enemies. Bulletin of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association Experimental Station Entomological Series 1(9): 271-479 [395].

  Type data:

   Syntype(s) BPBM sex, quantity unknown (coll.: vii-viii.1904, on sugar cane, on grasses), Cairns, Queensland.

Generic Combinations

• Lophops saccharacida (Kirkaldy, 1906). —
  Melichar, L. 1915. Monographie der Lophopinen. Annales Historico-Naturales Musei Nationalis Hungarici (Zoologica) 13: 337-385 [341]

Introduction

This species was described from sugarcane and grasses in North Queensland. Its status as a pest of sugarcane is largely unsubstantiated although another species of Lophopidae, Pyrilla perpusilla (Walker), is a serious pest of sugarcane in India. L. saccharicida is quite distinctive in shape and colour, easily distinguishable from the other Australian lophopids.

Distribution

States

Northern Territory, Queensland

IBRA and IMCRA regions

IBRA

NT, Qld: Central Mackay Coast (CMC), Darwin Coastal (DAC), South Eastern Queensland (SEQ), Wet Tropics (WT)

Ecological Descriptors

All stages: graminivore (associated flora: Saccharum officinarum Linnaeus [POACEAE] (sugar)), phloem feeder.

Diagnosis

Brownish testaceous; head paler, abdomen mostly darker; frons laterally and dorsally marked with short brownish lines. Tegmina pale brownish yellow, a brownish smudge on costal membrane and costal cell, also on apical margin (except extreme apex) with subparallel darker stripes, and two longer ones near apex across tegmen, also one or two small irregular specks on disk of corium and clavus. Wings pale smoky, veins pale brown. Legs lined with brownish. Length: 7.5–8.75 mm. (Kirkaldy 1906).

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 [395–396]

History of changes