Species Orosius lotophagorum (Kirkaldy, 1907)

Museums

Regional Maps

• Allygus lotophagorum Kirkaldy, G.W. 1907. Leafhoppers — Supplement (Hemiptera). Bulletin of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association Experimental Station Entomological Series 3: 1-186 [62].

  Type data:

   
  Syntype(s) BPBM ♂ ♀, quantity unlnown (coll.: iii-iv.1905, F. Muir), Rewa, Viti Levu, Fiji; BPBM ♂ ♀, quantity unknown (coll.: i.1905, F. Muir), Ba, Viti Levu, Fiji.
• Nesophrosyne argentatus distans Linnavuori, R.E. 1960. Homoptera : Cicadellidae. Insects of Micronesia 6(5): 225-344 [322].

  Type data:

   Holotype BPBM 2235 ♂ (coll.: 30.vii.1923, E.H. Bryan Jr), Wake Atoll.

 

Taxonomic Decision for Synonymy

• Ghauri, M.S.K. 1966. Revision of the genus Orosius Distant. Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) Entomology 18(7): 231-252 [241] (synonymy of N. a. var. distans )

 

Generic Combinations

• Orosius lotophagorum (Kirkaldy, 1907). —
  Ghauri, M.S.K. 1966. Revision of the genus Orosius Distant. Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) Entomology 18(7): 231-252 [241]
• Nesophrosyne (Orosius) lotophagorum (Kirkaldy, 1907). —
  Linnavuori, R.E. 1960. Cicadellidae (Homoptera, Auchenorrhyncha) of Fiji. Acta Entomologica Fennica 5: 1-71 [57]

 

Introduction

This species can be much darker than other species of the genus with the tegmina having more extensive brown colouring making the circular pale areas more clearly defined. However, as with other species, the colouring is variable. Fletcher et al. (2016) showed that the species is closely related to O. ryukyuensis, originally described from Japan but also present in Australia.

 

Distribution

States

Northern Territory, Queensland

Extra Distribution Information

Polynesia, Melanesia.

IBRA and IMCRA regions

IBRA

NT, Qld: Arnhem Coast (ARC), Brigalow Belt South (BBS), Daly Basin (DAB), Darwin Coastal (DAC), Einasleigh Uplands (EIU), Gulf Plains (GUP), South Eastern Queensland (SEQ)

Ecological Descriptors

All stages: phloem feeder (associated flora: Sida sp. [MALVACEAE]; Boerhavia sp. [NYCTAGINACEAE]; Portulaca sp. [PORTULACACEAE]; Sesuvium sp. [AIZOACEAE]).

 

Diagnosis

Yellowish-testaceous, marbled with olive-brown on pronotum. vertex with a mark and 6 spots in olive brown. Ocelli orange red, verv conspicuous. Frons yellowish-testaceous, strongly and broadly marked with a black radiating pattern. Genae yellow, margined apically with black and a median black spot. Clypeus and lora black, the former with 2 short pale lines, the latter with a pale spot each. Tegmina milky hyaline, closely marbled with olive-brown, but in parts only, so that there are 3 milky spots along the commissure on the clavus, and 5 or 6 on the corium, the latter less distinct; nodal veins suffused. Legs black with pale bristles, apical half of fore femora black, the fore and middle tibiae spotted with the same, all the tarsi partly pale. Abdomen mostly black. Male: genital pieces narrowly margined apically with whitish testaceous and with white bristles. Female: pygophor black, with white specks and white bristles on the apical half. Length 3 mm. (Kirkaldy 1907).

Orosius lotophagorum is one of three species in which the aedeagal shafts are abruptly narrowed towards the apex. It can be differentiated from O. recurvus in ventral view by the aedeagal shafts being incurved throughout rather than abruptly incurved near the apex as in O. recurvus. From O. ryukyuensis, it can be differentiated by the increasing width of the shafts in lateral view in O. lotophagorum while in O. ryukyuensis the shafts are more or less parallel sided from the base. Specimens of O. lotophagorum also usually have the brown patterning on the tegmina more closely netlike so that the ovate markings are clearer than in other species of the genus, including O. ryukyuensis (Fletcher et al. 2016).

 

ID Keys

Fletcher et al. 2016: 5

 

Diagnosis 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] [11–12]

Kirkaldy, G.W. 1907. Leafhoppers — Supplement (Hemiptera). Bulletin of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association Experimental Station Entomological Series 3: 1-186 [62–63]

 

History of changes

Published	As part of group	Action Date	Action Type	Compiler(s)
26-Jun-2023	MEMBRACOIDEA	26-Jun-2023	MODIFIED
10-May-2022	CICADOMORPHA	24-May-2023	MODIFIED
02-Jun-2021	AUCHENORRHYNCHA	26-Jun-2023	MODIFIED
05-Dec-2019	CICADELLIDAE Latreille, 1825	26-Jun-2023	MODIFIED	Dr Murray Fletcher
05-Dec-2019	Deltocephalinae Dallas, 1870	26-Jun-2023	MODIFIED	Dr Murray Fletcher
05-Dec-2019	Opsiini Emeljanov, 1962	26-Jun-2023	MODIFIED	Dr Murray Fletcher
05-Dec-2019	Deltocephalinae Dallas, 1870	26-Jun-2023	MODIFIED	Dr Murray Fletcher
05-Dec-2019	Deltocephalinae Dallas, 1870	26-Jun-2023	MODIFIED	Dr Murray Fletcher
05-Dec-2019	Opsiini Emeljanov, 1962	26-Jun-2023	MODIFIED	Dr Murray Fletcher
05-Dec-2019	Opsiini Emeljanov, 1962	26-Jun-2023	MODIFIED	Dr Murray Fletcher
05-Dec-2019		26-Jun-2023	MODIFIED
05-Dec-2019		26-Jun-2023	MODIFIED
05-Dec-2019		13-Jul-2011	MOVED
05-Dec-2019		26-Jun-2023	MODIFIED
		26-Jun-2023	MODIFIED