Genus Putoniessa Kirkaldy, 1907

Museums

Regional Maps

• Putoniessa Kirkaldy, G.W. 1907. Leafhoppers — Supplement (Hemiptera). Bulletin of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association Experimental Station Entomological Series 3: 1-186 [50].

  Type species:

   Putoniessa dignissima Kirkaldy, 1907 by monotypy.

 

Introduction

This is the dominant genus of Thymbrini in Australia with around 30 species recognised by Stevens (1994) who revised the group and provided a phylogenetic analysis. Stevens concluded that the genus has a disjunct Bassian distribution with a most likely southeastern origin followed by an east to west dispersal. There are a number of female specimens identified as being Putoniessa but not identifiable to species which extend the distribution of the genus into the tropical north of Western Australia, the Northern Territory and North Queensland, including one record from Horn Island in Torres Strait. Kirkaldy (1907) gave the etymology for the genus as "It is a melancholy satisfaction to name this in honour of the venerable Dr. Puton, on whom affliction has fallen so heavily." Dr Auguste Puton (1834–1913) worked on the Hemiptera of the Palaearctic Region.

 

Excluded Taxa

Misidentifications

Cicadellidae: Putoniessa nota Evans, 1942 [this species was excluded from Putoniessa Kirkaldy by Stevens (1994: 1105) who suggested that it was closely allied to Rhotidoides Evans] — Evans, J.W. 1942. New leafhoppers (Homoptera: Jassoidea) from Western Australia. Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia 27: 143-163 [151]; Stevens, M.M. 1994. Taxonomy, cladistics and biogeography of the Australian genus Putoniessa Kirkaldy (Hemiptera: Cicadelloidea: Cicadellidae). Invertebrate Taxonomy 8: 1037-1115 [1105]

 

Distribution

States

Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia

Extra Distribution Information

Australian Endemic.

IBRA and IMCRA regions

IBRA

ACT, NSW, NT, Qld, SA, Tas, Vic, WA: Australian Alps (AA), Avon Wheatbelt (AW), Brigalow Belt South (BBS), Ben Lomond (BEL), Carnarvon (CAR), Coolgardie (COO), Cape York Peninsula (CYP), Esperance Plains (ESP), Flinders Lofty Block (FLB), Gawler (GAW), Jarrah Forest (JF), Murray Darling Depression (MDD), Murchison (MUR), New England Tablelands (NET), NSW North Coast (NNC), NSW South Western Slopes (NSS), Pine Creek (PCK), Riverina (RIV), Sydney Basin (SB), South East Coastal Plain (SCP), South East Corner (SEC), South Eastern Highlands (SEH), South Eastern Queensland (SEQ), Sturt Plateau (STU), Swan Coastal Plain (SWA), Tasmanian Northern Midlands (TNM), Tasmanian South East (TSE), Tasmanian Southern Ranges (TSR), Victoria Bonaparte (VB), Victorian Midlands (VM), Warren (WAR), Wet Tropics (WT), Yalgoo (YAL)

Other Regions

Torres Strait Islands terrestrial, marine & freshwater

Diagnosis

Vertex very short, rather longer at the eyes than medianly; margin between this and frons angulate. but the top is actually thickened and a little flattened, an obscure transverse, ventral keel at about the middle of the eyes, apparently forming the limit. The ocelli are on this thickened and flattened part, about as in Thymbris [Kirkaldy], and although ventral in aspect, are I think, on the "vertex." Frons narrow, elongate. Tempora wide, antennal ridges rather strong. Vertex and pronotum transversely striate. Clypeus and genae strongly angulafe, the apical part declivous. Venation as in Thymbris, but the apical part of the subcostal cell is longer and reaches the apical margin of the tegmen (Kirkaldy 1907).

Stevens (1994) provided a comprehensive redescription and key to species.

 

ID Keys

Fletcher, M.J. (2005) Illustrated Key to the Genera of the Tribe Thymbrini (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae: Tartessinae) http://www1.dpi.nsw.gov.au/keys/leafhop/tartessinae/thym00.htm [accessed: 11.ii.2012]

 

Diagnosis References

Kirkaldy, G.W. 1907. Leafhoppers — Supplement (Hemiptera). Bulletin of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association Experimental Station Entomological Series 3: 1-186 [50]

Stevens, M.M. 1994. Taxonomy, cladistics and biogeography of the Australian genus Putoniessa Kirkaldy (Hemiptera: Cicadelloidea: Cicadellidae). Invertebrate Taxonomy 8: 1037-1115 [1045]

 

History of changes

Published	As part of group	Action Date	Action Type	Compiler(s)
26-Jun-2023	MEMBRACOIDEA	26-Jun-2023	MODIFIED
10-May-2022	CICADOMORPHA	24-May-2023	MODIFIED
02-Jun-2021	AUCHENORRHYNCHA	26-Jun-2023	MODIFIED
05-Dec-2019	CICADELLIDAE Latreille, 1825	26-Jun-2023	MODIFIED	Dr Murray Fletcher
20-Sep-2011		20-Sep-2011	MOVED
		12-Feb-2010	(import)