Species Platybrachys sera (Walker, 1851)

Museums

Regional Maps

• Eurybrachys sera 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. [385].

  Type data:

   Holotype BMNH ♂ (from Mr. Gould's collection; holotype by monotypy), Port Essington, Northern Territory.
• Eurybrachys semilimpida 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. [387].

  Type data:

   
  Syntype(s) BMNH ♂ (presented by the Haslar Hospital), New Holland; BMNH 2 ♂, locality unknown.

Taxonomic Decision for Synonymy

• Kirkaldy, G.W. 1906. Leafhoppers and their natural enemies. Bulletin of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association Experimental Station Entomological Series 1(9): 271-479 [444] (synonymy of Eurybrachys semilimpida)

Generic Combinations

• Platybrachys sera (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 confirmed by examination of Walker's type material, which comprises a holotype male by monotypy of P. sera and three male syntypes of P. semilimpida, according to Walker (1851) who indicated the sex of his specimens by adding "Mas." for male and "Fem." for female beside the species name. The number of specimens was indicated by italicised letters following the description, each one corresponding to collection data for each specimen. In this case, P. sera has simply "a. Port Essington. From Mr Gould's collection" while his description of P. semilimpida has "a. New Holland. Presented by the Haslar Hospital." on the first line followed by "b, c. -----------?", indicating there were two additional specimens with no collection data available.

Distribution

States

Northern Territory

IBRA and IMCRA regions

IBRA

NT: Tiwi Cobourg (TIW)

Ecological Descriptors

All stages: phloem feeder.

Diagnosis

Body ferruginous with blackish marks; head as broad as the chest; crown short, with numerous little longitudinal ridges, adorned on each side with an indistinct tawny spot, slightly convex along the fore border; face broad and flat, finely rugulose, spotted with yellow, surrounded by a shallow ridge, and traversed on the disk by a slight blackish ridge which has a notch in the middle; epistoma ferruginous, parted from the face by a concave suture; mouth tawny, reaching the hind-hips; eyes rather large and prominent; shield of the chest short, convex along the fore border, with a very indistinct ridge proceeding from the hind border and shortly dividing into two distinct curved ridges which join the fore border; three ridges on the scutcheon, the side pair curved and more distinct than the middle one; hind-chest tawny, ridged across; abdomen obconical, luteous, longer than the chest, furnished at the tip with an apparatus which consists of twelve appendages; the first is long, channelled, curved downward for much more than half its length, and then emits a little appendage above, and is armed with two teeth beneath; it next inclines upward at a right angle and widens into an obconical deflexed plate with a notch at its tip; the second and the third are a pair which form two stout upright spines beneath the curve of the first; the fourth and the fifth are another pair, which are more short and obtuse and form right angles beween the preceding pair and the base of the first; at the tip beneath there are three pairs of various length, which are inclined upward beneath the plate of the first; the inner pair are the longest and between them is the twelfth which is long and spindle-shaped; legs red, stout, furrowed; hind-shanks armed with stout spines; fore-wings nearly colourless, slightly tinged with yellow; more than one-third of the surface from the base is yellowish-brown, tinged here and there with black, and includes a colourless spot; towards the tip the wing is also yellowish-brown with the exception of two colorless spots; the reticulated part occupying about a third of the length; veins tawny; hind-wings colourless, brown towards the tips and along the hind border. Length of the body 6 lines; of the wings 16 lines. (Walker 1851)

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. [385–386]

History of changes