Species Protartessus australis (Walker, 1851)

Museums

Regional Maps

• Bythoscopus australis Walker, F. 1851. List of the Specimens of Homopterous Insects in the Collection of the British Museum. London : British Museum (Natural History) Vol. 3 pp. 637-907. [872].

  Type data:

   Holotype BMNH ♀, New Holland.

 

Generic Combinations

• Protartessus australis (Walker, 1851). —
  Evans, F. 1981. The Tartessinae of Australia, New Guinea and some adjacent Islands (Homoptera: Cicadellidae). Pacific Insects 23(1-2): 112-188 [140]
• Tartessus australis (Walker, 1851). —
  Evans, J.W. 1966. The leafhoppers and froghoppers of Australia and New Zealand. Memoirs of the Australian Museum 12: 1-347 [190]

 

Introduction

This species is apparently known from two specimens, both females. One is Walker's (1851) holotype (by monotypy) from "New Holland" while the other is from the western end of the Great Sandy Desert in Western Australia and is in the J.W. Evans collection. Evans (1981) provided measurement of a specimen said to be a male but described only the colour without any mention of male genitalia. It appears that the specimen to which Evans (1981) refers is the female in the JWE collection and the length measurement given is therefore of a female, not a male.

 

Distribution

States

Western Australia

Extra Distribution Information

Australian Endemic.

IBRA and IMCRA regions

IBRA

WA: Great Sandy Desert (GSD)

Ecological Descriptors

All stages: phloem feeder.

 

Diagnosis

Testaceous, fusco undatus, subtus flavus; facies fusco vittata et multifasciata; scutellum flavum, fusco trivittatum, nigro bimaculatum; pectus flavum ; abdomen supra ferrugineum, albido fasciatum, subtus flavum; alae anticae luridae; alae posticae subcinereae.
Testaceous, adorned with undulating brown marks, yellow beneath; head very short, as broad as the chest, indistinctly angular in front; crown longer on each side than in the middle, where its length is not more than one-twelfth of its breadth; face punctured, large, truncate-conical, with a spindle-shaped brown stripe, and on each side with a row of short brown bands; epistoma narrow, linear; shield transversely striated, semicircular along the fore border, very slightly concave behind; scutcheon yellow, with three brown streaks, and with a black spot on each side of the fore border; breast yellow with some small black spots; back of the abdomen ferruginous; hind borders of the segments whitish; underside yellow with a darker border; legs testaceous, with some darker stripes; hindthighs and hind-shanks yellow; fore-wings lurid; veins black; hindwings grayish. Length of the body 3 lines; of the wings 5½ 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. 3 pp. 637-907. [872–873]

 

General References

Evans, F. 1981. The Tartessinae of Australia, New Guinea and some adjacent Islands (Homoptera: Cicadellidae). Pacific Insects 23(1-2): 112-188 [140]

 

History of changes

Published	As part of group	Action Date	Action Type	Compiler(s)
20-Sep-2011		20-Sep-2011	MOVED
		12-Feb-2010	(import)