Genus Massila Walker, 1862

Massila sicca Walker, type species of Massila.

© Copyright Murray Fletcher, Orange Agricultural Institute.

Museums

Regional Maps

• Massila Walker, F. 1862. Characters of undescribed species of Homoptera in the collection of F.P. Pascoe, F.L.S. Journal of Entomology A 1: 303-319 [314].

  Type species:

   Massila sicca Walker, 1862 by subsequent designation, see Kirkaldy, G.W. 1906. Leafhoppers and their natural enemies. Bulletin of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association Experimental Station Entomological Series 1(9): 271-479 [459].

Introduction

This small endemic Australia genus contains four species distributed along the eastern seaboard of the continent from the wet tropics of Queensland to the Southeast Highlands of New South Wales. At least two of the species are common in gardens on a variety of native and exotic plants. Their small size, dark colouring and narrow shaped make individuals difficult to detect unless they are disturbed and take flight. All four species are alike in general appearance and it is only by examination of the male genitalia that they can be differentiated.

Distribution

States

New South Wales, Queensland

IBRA and IMCRA regions

IBRA

NSW, Qld: Brigalow Belt North (BBN), Brigalow Belt South (BBS), NSW North Coast (NNC), Sydney Basin (SB), South Eastern Highlands (SEH), South Eastern Queensland (SEQ), Wet Tropics (WT)

Diagnosis

Head short. Frons about as long as wide, convex, with obscure median longitudinal carina. Vertex very short. Pronotum short with two circular depressions near the front margin. Tegmen 2½ times as long as wide. Costal margin convex to apex of costal cell, then concave to rounded apical angle. Sutural margin concave from apex of scutellum to rounded sutural angle. Apical margin slightly convex. Tegmen outwardly prominent on R1 level with origin of Rs and on 2A. Costal cell wider than costal membrane. Subapical lines absent. Vein Cu branched at about midlength, anterior branch short, meeeting M3+4 to form strong angled crossvein. Hind tibia with one spine on external margin (Fletcher 1988).

Species in Massila are superficially similar to species of Dascalina but the apical margin of the tegmen is convex in Massila and concave in Dascalina.

ID Keys

Fletcher, M.J. (2005). Illustrated key to the genera of the family Flatidae found in Australia (Hemiptera: Fulgoroidea) http://www1.dpi.nsw.gov.au/keys/fulgor/flatid/flat00.htm

Diagnosis References

Fletcher, M.J. 1988. The Australian genera of Flatidae (Homoptera: Fulgoroidea). General and Applied Entomology 20: 9-32 [14]

History of changes