Genus Orosius Distant, 1918

Museums

Regional Maps

• Orosius Distant, W.L. 1918. Rhynchota. Homoptera: Appendix. Heteroptera: Addenda. The Fauna of British India including Ceylon and Burma 7(i-viii): 1-210 [85].

  Type species:

   Orosius albicinctus Distant, 1918 by original designation.

  Secondary source:

   Ghauri, M.S.K. 1966. Revision of the genus Orosius Distant. Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) Entomology 18(7): 231-252 [234].
• Nesaloha Oman, P.W. 1943. A new leafhopper from Oceania (Homoptera Cicadellidae). Pan-Pacific Entomologist 19(1): 33-34 [33].

  Type species:

   Nesaloha cantonis Oman, 1943 by original designation.

 

Taxonomic Decision for Synonymy

• Evans, J.W. 1947. A natural classification of leafhoppers (Jassoidea, Homoptera) Part 3. Jassidae. Transactions of the Royal Entomological Society of London 98(6): 105-271 [236] (synonymy of Nesaloha )

 

Introduction

The genus Orosius includes a number of species which are serious pests of horticultural crops as vectors of phytoplasma and virus diseases in Australia and in many locations overseas, including North Africa, the Middle East, India, Pakistan and throughout the Oriental region. A worldwide revision of the genus by Fletcher, et al. (2016) recognised 14 species, two of which were represented by females only and determined to be different by CO1 barcoding. Of these 14, all but one were recognised in the Australian fauna. Orosius orientalis (Matsumura) and O. argentatus (Evans) were recognised by barcoding to be both valid species although their male genitalia are extremely similar and the two had been synonymised by Kwon & Lee (1979) but resurrected as species in the most recent work.

 

Distribution

States

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

Extra Distribution Information

Java, Melanesia, Africa, New Britain, Polynesia.

IBRA and IMCRA regions

IBRA

ACT, NSW, NT, Qld, SA, Vic, WA: Arnhem Coast (ARC), Avon Wheatbelt (AW), Brigalow Belt North (BBN), Brigalow Belt South (BBS), Broken Hill Complex (BHC), Burt Plain (BRT), Carnarvon (CAR), Channel Country (CHC), Coolgardie (COO), Cobar Peneplain (CP), Central Ranges (CR), Cape York Peninsula (CYP), Daly Basin (DAB), Darwin Coastal (DAC), Dampierland (DL), Davenport Murchison Ranges (DMR), Darling Riverine Plains (DRP), Einasleigh Uplands (EIU), Esperance Plains (ESP), Finke (FIN), Flinders Lofty Block (FLB), Flinders (FLI), Gascoyne (GAS), Gawler (GAW), Gibson Desert (GD), Gulf Fall and Uplands (GFU), Great Sandy Desert (GSD), Gulf Plains (GUP), Great Victoria Desert (GVD), Hampton (HAM), Jarrah Forest (JF), Kanmantoo (KAN), MacDonnell Ranges (MAC), Mallee (MAL), Murray Darling Depression (MDD), Mitchell Grass Downs (MGD), Mulga Lands (ML), Murchison (MUR), Nandewar (NAN), New England Tablelands (NET), Northern Kimberley (NK), NSW South Western Slopes (NSS), Ord Victoria Plain (OVP), Pine Creek (PCK), Pilbara (PIL), Riverina (RIV), Sydney Basin (SB), South East Coastal Plain (SCP), South Eastern Highlands (SEH), South Eastern Queensland (SEQ), Simpson Strzelecki Dunefields (SSD), Stony Plains (STP), Sturt Plateau (STU), Swan Coastal Plain (SWA), Tanami (TAN), Tasmanian Northern Slopes (TNS), Victoria Bonaparte (VB), Victorian Midlands (VM), Wet Tropics (WT)

Other Regions

Torres Strait Islands terrestrial, marine & freshwater

Diagnosis

Vertex of head about as long as breadth between eyes, anteriorly subconically produced; face longer than broad, the lateral margins moderately convex, gradually moderately narrowed towards clypeus; scutellum more than half as long as broad, anterior margin strongly convex, posterior margin truncate, the lateral margins oblique; scutellum about twice as broad at base as long, apically subacute, centrally transversely impressed near middle; tegmina about four times as long as broad, their apices broadly rounded, a network of cells on apical area; posterior tibiae strongly spinulose (Distant 1918).

The species of Orosius can usually be recognised by the markings on the wings which comprise a filigree brown pattern with oval pale spots which are largely independent of the cells. The vertex is also marked with distinctive fine brown markings. The male genitalia are characterised by an aedeagus with two gonopores subapically on the dorsal surface of separate shafts which lack accessory processes and subgenital plates which are extended apically to form an annulated finger-like process (Fletcher et al. (2016).

 

Diagnosis References

Distant, W.L. 1918. The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma. Rhynchota (Homoptera: Appendix, Heteroptera: Appendix). London : Taylor & Francis Vol. 7 viii 210 pp. [85]

Fletcher, M.J., Löcker, H., Mitchell, A. & Gopurenko, D. 2016. A revision of the genus Orosius Distant (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae) based on male genitalia and DNA barcoding. Austral Entomology [Date published Early version published online 1/9/2016: Paper version in 2017 on Vol. 56(2): 198–217] [5]

 

General References

Fletcher, M.J., Löcker, H., Mitchell, A. & Gopurenko, D. 2016. A revision of the genus Orosius Distant (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae) based on male genitalia and DNA barcoding. Austral Entomology [Date published Early version published online 1/9/2016: Paper version in 2017 on Vol. 56(2): 198–217]

Kwon, Y.J. & Lee, C.E. 1979. On some new and little known Palaearctic species of leafhoppers (Homoptera : Auchenorrhyncha : Cicadellidae). Nature and Life in Southeast Asia 9(2): 69-97 [92]

 

History of changes

Published	As part of group	Action Date	Action Type	Compiler(s)
05-Dec-2019	Opsiini Emeljanov, 1962	09-Sep-2016	MODIFIED	Dr Murray Fletcher
05-Dec-2019		13-Aug-2013	MODIFIED
05-Dec-2019		16-May-2012	MODIFIED
05-Dec-2019		13-Jul-2011	MOVED
		12-Feb-2010	(import)