Tribe Penthimiini Kirschbaum, 1868

Museums

Regional Maps

• Penthimidae Kirschbaum, C.L. 1868. Die Cicadinen der gegend von Wiesbaden und Frankfurt A.M. nebst einer anzahl neuer oder Schwer zu unterscheidender Arten aus anderen Gegenden Europa's Taballarisch Beschrieben. Jahrbuch des Nassauischen Vereins für Naturkunde 21-22: 1-202 [14].

  Type genus:

   Penthimia Germar, 1821.

Introduction

Penthimiines are round squat insects with the tegmina reaching just to the end of the abdomen and usually slightly overlapping. The shape of the head is quite distinctive with the crown curved down to overlap the top of the face which is transversely concave, as if the front margin of the head has been pulled downward. Some of the species are beautifully marked with filigree patterns in an enamel-smooth surface on the head and pronotum. None is known to be of economic importance in Australia. Linnavuori (1959) first proposed that the group, which had been treated as a subfamily in its own right by other authors should be treated as a tribe of the subfamily Deltocephalinae. Dietrich and Rakitov (2002) supported this view. The Australian fauna is quite varied with 26 species recognised in 9 genera. The most recent review of the Australian Penthimiini was by Evans (1972).

Diagnosis

Scheitel stark nach vorn geneigt, allmählich in die horizontale nicht blasig gewölbte Stirn übergehend, Körper, Stirn und Wangen breit. (Kirschbaum 1868).

Broad, robust, depressed leafhoppers. Head broad. Face short and very broad, almost in a horizontal plane. Genae very broad but short; frontoclypeus very broad, concave below anterior margin of head. Antennal pits deep; ocellocular area with a transverse ledge above. Crown broad, roundedly produced, usually sloping anteriorly, being rounded to the face. Ocelli in anterior margin of head, usually far from eyes. Pronotum large, lateral margins ± carinate. Elytra very broad, rather tectiform; 1st apical cell and appendix unusually large; elytra covered with fine hair-bearing punctures both in cells and veins, at least basally. Fore and middle tibiae flattened dorsally, angular in section. Male genitalia of the type usual in the Deltocephalinae; connective robust, Y-shaped (Linnavuori 1959).

ID Keys

Fletcher, M.J. (2009 and updates). Key to the leafhoppers and treehoppers of Australia and neighbouring areas (Hemiptera: Auchenorrhyncha). http://www1.dpi.nsw.gov.au/keys/leafhop/index.html

Diagnosis References

Kirschbaum, C.L. 1868. Die Cicadinen der gegend von Wiesbaden und Frankfurt A.M. nebst einer anzahl neuer oder Schwer zu unterscheidender Arten aus anderen Gegenden Europa's Taballarisch Beschrieben. Jahrbuch des Nassauischen Vereins für Naturkunde 21-22: 1-202 [14]

Linnavuori, R.E. 1959. Revision of the Neotropical Deltocephalinae and some related subfamilies (Homoptera). Annales Zoologici Fennici 20(1): 1-370 [53]

General References

Dietrich, C.H. & Rakitov, R.A. 2002. Some remarkable new deltocephaline leafhoppers (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae: Deltocephalinae) from the Amazonian rainforest canopy. Journal of the New York Entomological Society 110(1): 1–48 [3]

Evans, J.W. 1972. Characteristics and relationships of the Penthimiinae and some new genera and new species from New Guinea and Australia; also new species of Drabescinae from New Guinea and Australia. Pacific Insects 14(1): 169-200

Linnavuori, R.E. 1959. Revision of the Neotropical Deltocephalinae and some related subfamilies (Homoptera). Annales Zoologici Fennici 20(1): 1-370 [53]

History of changes