Species Maiestas knighti Webb & Viraktamath, 2009

Maiestas knighti Webb & Viraktamath, adult male.

© Copyright Murray Fletcher, Orange Agricultural Institute.

Museums

Regional Maps

• Maiestas knighti Webb, M.D. & Viraktamath, C.A. 2009. Annotated check-list, generic key and new species of Old World Deltocephalini leafhoppers with nomenclatorial changes in the Deltocephalus group and other Deltocephalinae (Hemiptera, Auchenorrhyncha, Cicadellidae). Zootaxa 2163: 1-64 [43].

  Type data:

   Holotype BMNH ♂ (coll: W.J. Knight & P.S. Broomfield, 3.ii.1972), Glentamner Station, Tasman Valley, New Zealand.
• Recilia hospes Knight, W.J. 1975. Deltocephalinae of New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Zoology 2(2): 169-208 [202] [misidentification of Recilia hospes (Kirkaldy, 1904) (Hawaii)].

Introduction

This is one of the most common and widespread grass-feeding leafhoppers in Australia although it has been known mainly under other names, particularly Recilia hospes (Kirkaldy) which is now M. hospes and known to be restricted to Hawaii.

Distribution

States

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

IBRA and IMCRA regions

IBRA

ACT, NSW, NT, Qld, Tas, Vic, WA: Arnhem Coast (ARC), Brigalow Belt North (BBN), Brigalow Belt South (BBS), Broken Hill Complex (BHC), Central Arnhem (CA), Carnarvon (CAR), Central Mackay Coast (CMC), Cape York Peninsula (CYP), Daly Basin (DAB), Darwin Coastal (DAC), Einasleigh Uplands (EIU), Gulf Plains (GUP), Nandewar (NAN), New England Tablelands (NET), Northern Kimberley (NK), NSW North Coast (NNC), NSW South Western Slopes (NSS), Pilbara (PIL), Riverina (RIV), Sydney Basin (SB), South Eastern Highlands (SEH), South Eastern Queensland (SEQ), Tasmanian Southern Ranges (TSR), Victoria Bonaparte (VB), Wet Tropics (WT)

Other Regions

Torres Strait Islands terrestrial, marine & freshwater

Ecological Descriptors

All stages: phloem feeder.

Diagnosis

General coloration very pale brown. A highly variable species. Crown of head roundly acute. Anterior margin with a broken, brown stripe, which may consist of a row of dark brown spots or a broad, dark brown band with oval, or round spots. Tegmen pallid yellowish with a few indistinct brown markings; some cells, particularly against the costal margin and apically, may be suffused entirely or in part with smoky brown; veins white. Length ♂, ♀ 3–4 mm (Evans 1966, as Deltocephalus coronifer).

Knight (1975) gave a comprehensive description of the species, as Deltocephalus (Recilia) hospes, and figured the male genitalia.

Diagnosis References

Evans, J.W. 1966. The leafhoppers and froghoppers of Australia and New Zealand. Memoirs of the Australian Museum 12: 1-347 [240]

Knight, W.J. 1975. Deltocephalinae of New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Zoology 2(2): 169-208 [202–203]

History of changes