Genus Petalocephala Stål, 1853

Petalocephala bohemani Stål, type species of Petalocephala Stål.

© Copyright Murray Fletcher, Orange Agricultural Institute.

Museums

Regional Maps

• Petalocephala Stål, C. 1853. Nya Genera bland Hemiptera. Öfversigt af Kongliga Svenska Vetenskaps-Akademiens Förhandlingar. Stockholm 10: 259-267 [266].

  Type species:

   Petalocephala bohemani Stål, 1854 by subsequent designation, see Atkinson, E.T. 1885. Notes on Indian Rhynchota, No 3. Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal 54: 76-117 [107].
• Pachyledra Schumacher, F. 1912. Zur Kenntnis der Africanischen Ledrinen (Hem, Hom, Ledr.). Wiener Entomologische Zeitung 31: 245-249 [248].

  Type species:

   Pachyledra kamerunensis Schumacher, 1912 by monotypy.

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 [130]

Introduction

This genus is the largest and, with Ledra Fabricius, one of the most widespread of the ledrine genera occurring across the Afrotropical, Oriental, eastern Palaearctic and Australasian regions with more than 80 described species. The genus was originally described by Stål (1853) although he did not have any species included in it until Stål (1854) included four species in the genus which he grouped as two pairs based on the relative length of the head. One of these, P. bohemani, described by Stål (1854) from Java, occurs in Australia along with P. concolor (Walker) (Tasmania) whose identity and generic affinities have yet to be established.

Distribution

States

Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Queensland, Tasmania, Victoria

IBRA and IMCRA regions

IBRA

ACT, NSW, Qld, Tas, Vic: Brigalow Belt South (BBS), Sydney Basin (SB), South Eastern Highlands (SEH), South Eastern Queensland (SEQ)

Diagnosis

Caput valde rotundato-productum, supra planum, subtus concaviusculum, longitudinaliter biimpressum. Antennae breves, oblique ante oculos insertae, cylindricae, articulis longitudine subaequalibus. Prothorax transversus, capitis longitudine, paralellus, convexiusculus, medio longitudinaliter subimpressus, basi sinuatus. Hemelytra abdomine nonnihil longiora, nervis longitudinalibus, furcatis (Stål 1853).

Body very oblong or a little elongate, depressed; head clypeated, foliaceously produced anteriorly; vertex somewhat flattened; face beneath eyes strongly and abruptly, thence gradually, narrowed, margins very slightly defined; front small, narrow, flattish; eyes small; ocelli situated towards base of vertex, farther removed from the eyes than from each other; pronotum transversely sexangular, not or only slightly anteriorly narrowed, the lateral margins acute, anterior lateral much longer than posterior lateral, anterior margin slightly rounded; scutellum triangular, subequilateral; tegmina subcoriaceous, pellucid, denselypunctate, tectiform, anteriorly conjointly convex, clavus very broad before the middle, corium obliquely rounded at apex, veins somewhat irregularly anastomosed towards apex; legs somewhat short, anterior coxae free, posterior tibiae remotely dentate (Distant 1908).

ID Keys

Fletcher, M.J. (2000) Illustrated Key to the Genera of the Tribe Ledrini found in Australia (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae: Ledrinae) http://www1.dpi.nsw.gov.au/keys/leafhop/ledrinae/led00.htm [accessed: 23.ix.2011]

Diagnosis References

Distant, W.L. 1908. The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma. Rhynchota. London : Taylor & Francis Vol. 4 xv 501 pp. [162–163]

Stål, C. 1853. Nya Genera bland Hemiptera. Öfversigt af Kongliga Svenska Vetenskaps-Akademiens Förhandlingar. Stockholm 10: 259-267 [266–267]

History of changes