Species Platybrachys barbata (Fabricius, 1775)

Museums

Regional Maps

• Cicada barbata Fabricius, J.C. 1775. Ryngota. Systema entomologiae, sistens insectorum classes, ordines, genera, species, adiectis synonymis, locis, descriptionibus, observationibus. 816 pp. [dated 1775] [684].

  Type data:

   Status unknown, whereabouts unknown, locality unknown.
• Eurybrachys rubiginea Walker, F. 1851. List of the Specimens of Homopterous Insects in the Collection of the British Museum. London : British Museum (Natural History) Vol. 2 pp. 261-636. [386].

  Type data:

   
  Syntype(s) BMNH sex unknown (presented by the Haslar Hospital), New Holland; BMNH sex unknown, [undetermined].

Taxonomic Decision for Synonymy

• Distant, W.L. 1906. Rhynchotal Notes. xxxix. Annals and Magazine of Natural History 7 18: 191-208 [206] (synonymy of Eurybrachys rubiginea)

Generic Combinations

• Platybrachys barbata (Fabricius, 1775). —
  Distant, W.L. 1906. Rhynchotal Notes. xxxix. Annals and Magazine of Natural History 7 18: 191-208 [206]
• Platybrachys rubiginea (Walker, 1851). —
  Stål, C. 1862. Synonymiska och systematiska anteckningar öfver Hemiptera. Öfversigt af Kongelige Vetenskaps-Akademiens Förhandlingar, Stockholm 19(9): 479-504 [488]

Introduction

The identity of this species needs to be established by examination of the type material. Metcalf (1956) lists India, New South Wales and Queensland as part of the distribution of this species but there is no indication of the source of these records other than Gmelin (1789) listing the species from India. Kirkaldy (1906) stated that specimens from Cairns and Bundaberg "seem tio be var rubiginea" and this is taken to be records of the species from Queensland. Lallemand (1935) gives Marrakai (v.1931) and Kadarri (iv.1931) as localities for the species. Marrakai is in the northern part of the Northern Territory but no reference can be found to Kadarri. It is presumed it is also in the northern part of the Northern Territory since the material covered by Lallemand (1935) was collected by Handschin on a visit to Indonesia, the Solomon Islands and the Northern Territory.

Distribution

States

Northern Territory, Queensland

IBRA and IMCRA regions

IBRA

NT, Qld: Darwin Coastal (DAC), South Eastern Queensland (SEQ), Wet Tropics (WT)

Ecological Descriptors

All stages: phloem feeder.

Diagnosis

Body ferruginous, indistinctly marked with darker colour; head as broad as the chest; crown very short, surrounded by a very slight ridge, slightly convex in front; face finely rugulose, very broad, surrounded by a slight ridge, scutcheon-shaped, forming an angle on each side, and having on the middle of its fore border a concavity where it joins the epistoma; mouth ferruginous, reaching the hind-hips; shield very short; concave along the hind border; hind-chest tawny, partly yellow, ridged transversely; abdomen tawny, obconical, a little longer than the chest, adorned with indistinct yellow and brown bands, thickly clothed at the tip with white filaments; legs red, stout, clothed with very short black hairs; hind-shanks armed with stout spines; fore-wings tawny, tinged with pale brown in the reticulated part where there are a few pale yellow and colourless irregular spots; a black spot on the hind border near the tip, and one or two smaller black spots in the disk nearer the base; veins red, bordered also with red in the basal region which occupies much more than half the length of the wing, and at a distance appears wholly red; hind-wings transparent, tinged with yellow or tawny, brown towards the tip, whitish along the hind border; veins ferruginous. Length of the body 5.5–6 line; of the wings 14–15 lines. (Walker 1851, of Eurybrachys rubiginea)

Walker's (1851) description is of a female, as evidenced by "Fem." placed after the species name and the description of the white filaments at the apex of the abdomen.

Diagnosis References

Walker, F. 1851. List of the Specimens of Homopterous Insects in the Collection of the British Museum. London : British Museum (Natural History) Vol. 2 pp. 261-636. [386]

History of changes