Species Platybrachys vidua Stål, 1863

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Regional Maps

• Platybrachys vidua Stål, C. 1863. Beitrag zur Kenntnis der Fulgoriden. Stettiner Entomologische Zeitung 24: 230-251 [249].

  Type data:

   Syntype(s) NRS ♂, quantity unknown, Moreton Bay, Queensland.
• Platybrachys chlorocephala 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].

  Type data:

   Syntype(s) BPBM sex, quantity unknown (coll.: ii.1904), Sydney, New South Wales.
• Platybrachys oculata Kirkaldy, G.W. 1906. Leafhoppers and their natural enemies. Bulletin of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association Experimental Station Entomological Series 1(9): 271-479 [443].

  Type data:

   
  Syntype(s) BPBM sex, quantity unknown (coll.: viii.1904), Cairns, Queensland; BPBM sex, quantity unknown (coll.: vii.1904), Nelson (=Gordonvale), Queensland; BPBM sex, quantity unknown (coll.: vi.1904), Brisbane, Queensland.

Taxonomic Decision for Synonymy

• Jacobi, A. 1928. Results of Dr E. Mjöberg's Swedish Scientific Expeditions to Australia 1910-1913. Rhynchota, Homoptera. 1. Fulgoridae und Cercopidae. Arkiv för Zoologi 19A(28): 1-50 [8] (synonymy of P. chlorocephala and P. oculata)

Introduction

The identity of this species needs to be established through examination of the type material of all three synonyms. The species has been recorded from several locations along the Australian east coast from Sydney, New South Wales to Cairns in North Queensland.

Distribution

States

New South Wales, Queensland

IBRA and IMCRA regions

IBRA

NSW, Qld: Sydney Basin (SB), South Eastern Queensland (SEQ), Wet Tropics (WT)

Ecological Descriptors

All stages: phloem feeder.

Diagnosis

Cinnamomea; tegminibus apicem versus levissime subampliatis, parce obsoletissime pallidius conserpsis, prope apicem maculis quattuor nigris, in seriem arcuatam transversam dispositis, ornatis, maculis duabus intermediis antice maculis nonnullis minutis albis notatis, margine costali maculis obsoletis minutissimis fuscis; alis fuscis, basin versus pallidioribus. ♂ Long. 7, Exp. tegm. 22 mill. (Stål 1863)

Head testaceous, sometimes tinged with olive brown; pronotum and scutellum sordid castaneous, abdomen mostly black; anterior and intermediate legs castaneous, except the black, foliaceous part of the anterior tibiae; posterior legs black. Tegmina reddish castaneous, apical margin narrowly smoky, a small black spot near the apex, with three tiny white specks enclosed, and a narrow testaceous line from this spot to costal margin, (or there may be two or three black spots, each encircling white specks, or there may be no white specks; apical margin often more broadly dark.) Wings dark smoky. Vertex rather less than twice as broad as long. Length: 11-12.5 mill. (Kirkaldy 1906, of P. oculata)

Similar to P. oculata but head pale bright green, an additional black spot on tegmina, about middle of costa; posterior legs sordid brownish. Vertex more than three times as wide as long. Length: 12 mill. (Kirkaldy 1906, of P. chlorocephala)

Diagnosis References

Kirkaldy, G.W. 1906. Leafhoppers and their natural enemies. Bulletin of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association Experimental Station Entomological Series 1(9): 271-479 [443–444]

Stål, C. 1863. Beitrag zur Kenntnis der Fulgoriden. Stettiner Entomologische Zeitung 24: 230-251 [249–250]

History of changes