Genus Nycheuma Fennah, 1964

Museums

Regional Maps

• Nycheuma Fennah, R.G. 1964. Delphacidae from Madagascar and the Mascarene Islands (Homoptera: Fulgoroidea). Transactions of the Royal Entomological Society of London 116: 131-150 [145].

  Type species:

   Dicranotropis capensis Muir, 1926 by original designation.

Introduction

This genus was created for a small group of African species. It was added to the Australian fauna through the transfer to Nycheuma, by Fennah (1969), of Dicranotropis cognata Muir, which had been described from Australia, Fiji and the Philippines. Nycheuma currently holds nine species distributed from the Cape Verde Islands in the Atlantic Ocean across Africa, Italy and Asia to Fiji in the Pacific. A second species was added to the Australian fauna by Bellis et al. (2013).

Distribution

States

New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, Western Australia

IBRA and IMCRA regions

IBRA

NSW, NT, Qld: Brigalow Belt North (BBN), Cape York Peninsula (CYP), Sydney Basin (SB) ; NSW, NT, Qld, WA: Darwin Coastal (DAC), South Eastern Queensland (SEQ), Wet Tropics (WT) ; NT, Qld, WA: Victoria Bonaparte (VB)

Other Regions

Torres Strait Islands terrestrial, marine & freshwater

Diagnosis

This genus is close to Thriambus and differs from Dicranotropis and other genera in the same characters. From Thriambus it is separated by the relatively wider head, which is wider than the pronotum, and its anterior margin, which, when viewed from above, does not project beyond the anterior margin of the eyes, by the relatively longer profemora, the fewer teeth on the post-tibial spur, and the subglobular form of the lower surface of the pygofer.
Head as wide as pronotum or slightly wider. Vertex shorter submedially than broad at base (about 1 : 1.2), scarcely surpassing eyes, moderately strongly rounding into frons, about as wide at apex as at base, lateral margins almost straight, apical margni transverse with submedian carinae moderately prominent, Y-shaped carina feeble, submedian carinae uniting on frons, basal compartment of vertex wider at hind margin than greatest length (about 2.2 : 1), and than median length (about 2.7 : 1); frons in middle line longer than wide at widest part (2 : 1), widest at level of ocelli, lateral margins straight and converging distad beyond this level, median carina forked at level of ocelli; clypeus at base a little wider than frons at apex, in profile shallowly convex; rostrum with apical segment about as long as subapical; antennae reaching slightly beyond frontoclypeal suture, basal segment cylindrical, longer than broad (about 2 : 1), second segment longer than first (about 2 : 1); ocelli distinct. Pronotum with disc shorter in middle line than broad at anterior margin (1 : 1.2), lateral carinae not attaining hind margin. Total length of mesonotum longer than that of scutellum (about 2.8 : 1). Profemora moderately long, longer than procoxae (about 1.7 : 1); post tibial spur thin, moderately large, with about 20 teeth. Anal segment of male short, lateroapical angles widely separated, each produced ventrad in a spinose process. Pygofer short dorsally, long and strongly convex ventrally, posterior opening about as long as broad, dorsolateral angles not produced, lateral margins rather feebly demarcated from diaphragm, diaphragm moderately deeply impressed with dorsal margin membranous; medioventral process present, small, sometimes complex. Aedeagus rather long, laterally compressed, reflected cephalad at apex in a flagellum. Genital styles simple, rather narrow, tapering distally, rectangulately or subacutely bent dorsad; if produced caudad at point of flexure, then lobe narrow and very small. Pregenital sternite of female not sclerotised medially or produced in a lobe. (Fennah 1964)

General References

Hou, X.-H. & Chen, X.-S. 2014. Revision of the planthopper genus Nycheuma Fennah (Hemiptera, Fulgoromorpha, Delphacidae). ZooKeys 462: 47-57

History of changes