Species Mayawa capitata (Kirkaldy, 1907)

Museums

Regional Maps

• Limotettix capitatus Kirkaldy, G.W. 1907. Leafhoppers — Supplement (Hemiptera). Bulletin of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association Experimental Station Entomological Series 3: 1-186 [64].

  Type data:

   Lectotype BPBM ♀ (coll.: viii.1904, Perkins), Cairns, Queensland.

  Subsequent designation references:

  Fletcher, M.J. & Condello, A.A. 1993. Lectotype designations and new synonymies for G. W. Kirkaldy's Australian Deltocephalinae (Homoptera: Cicadellidae) held in the B.P. Bishop Museum, Honolulu. General and Applied Entomology 25: 35-59 [39].

 

Generic Combinations

• Cicadulina bipunctata capitata (Kirkaldy, 1907). —
  Vilbaste, J. 1976. A revision of Homoptera - Cicadinea described by S. Matsumura from Europe and the Mediterranean area. Eest NSV Teaduste Akadeemia Toimetised 25, Bioloogia. Vol. 1. 25-36 pp. [27]
• Mayawa capitata (Kirkaldy, 1907). —
  Fletcher, M.J. 2000. A new genus, Mayawa, for the reception of Limotettix capitatus Kirkaldy (Hemiptera : Cicadellidae : Deltocephalinae) and descriptions of five new species of Mayawa. Australian Journal of Entomology 39(3): 103-110 [105]
• Cicadulina capitata (Kirkaldy, 1907). —
  Evans, J.W. 1966. The leafhoppers and froghoppers of Australia and New Zealand. Memoirs of the Australian Museum 12: 1-347 [253]
• Liimotettix capitatus Kirkaldy, 1907. —
  Kitching, R.L., Grylls, N.E. & Waterford, C. 1973. The identity of the Australian species of Cicadulina China. Journal of the Australian Entomological Society 12: 139-143 [141]

 

Introduction

This species has had a history of tentative generic placements, mainly in the genus Cicadulina China the species of which all bear a distinctive pair of round black dots on the front of the head. Unlike, Cicadulina, however, M. capitata also has a pair of round black dots on the face. Its grouping with five new species into a new genus Mayawa by Fletcher (2000) was due to the great similarity in the structures of the male genitalia throughout this group. M. capitata is distributed across the coastal areas of northern Australia from Barrow Island in Western Australia to the coastal regions of the north brigalow belt in North Queensland.

 

Distribution

States

Northern Territory, Queensland, Western Australia

Extra Distribution Information

Australian Endemic.

IBRA and IMCRA regions

IBRA

NT, Qld, WA: Brigalow Belt North (BBN), Carnarvon (CAR), Cape York Peninsula (CYP), Darwin Coastal (DAC), Dampierland (DL), Einasleigh Uplands (EIU), Gulf Plains (GUP), Pilbara (PIL), Victoria Bonaparte (VB), Wet Tropics (WT)

Other Regions

Torres Strait Islands terrestrial, marine & freshwater

Ecological Descriptors

All stages: grassland, phloem feeder.

 

Diagnosis

Fletcher (2000) provides a detailed description and figures of the species. The dark markings on the head are quite variable but the male genitalia is stable in structure across its range.

 

ID Keys

Fletcher 2000: 104

 

Diagnosis References

Fletcher, M.J. 2000. A new genus, Mayawa, for the reception of Limotettix capitatus Kirkaldy (Hemiptera : Cicadellidae : Deltocephalinae) and descriptions of five new species of Mayawa. Australian Journal of Entomology 39(3): 103-110 [105–107]

 

History of changes

Published	As part of group	Action Date	Action Type	Compiler(s)
05-Dec-2019		25-Oct-2013	MODIFIED
05-Dec-2019		16-May-2012	MODIFIED
05-Dec-2019		05-Aug-2011	MODIFIED
		12-Feb-2010	(import)