Genus Sarantus Stål, 1863

Sarantus nobilis Kirkaldy, only named Australian species of the genus.

© Copyright Murray Fletcher, Orange Agricultural Institute.

Museums

Regional Maps

• Sarantus Stål, C. 1863. Hemipterorum exoticorum generum et specierum nonnullarum novarum descriptiones. Transactions of the Entomological Society of London 3 1: 571-603 [592].

  Type species:

   Sarantus wallacei Stål, 1863 by monotypy.
• Godingella Distant, W.L. 1916. Rhynchotal Notes. lx. Annals and Magazine of Natural History 8(18): 19-44 [31].

  Type species:

   Godingella queenslandensis Distant, 1916 by monotypy.

Taxonomic Decision for Synonymy

• Evans, J.W. 1966. The leafhoppers and froghoppers of Australia and New Zealand. Memoirs of the Australian Museum 12: 1-347 [303]

Introduction

Sarantus Stål is a New Guinean genus with several species, mostly undescribed, known in collections. Two species, one undescribed, were recorded in Australia by Day (1999). The best known and most widespread is S. nobilis Kirkaldy, a large glossy black species which has been recorded along the east coast of Australia from far North Queensland to the Sydney basin of New South Wales. It is also found in New Guinea. The etymology for the synonym Godingella Distant was given as "I have named this genus after Dr. F. W. Goding, our distinguished pioneer in the study and description of the Australian Membracidae." (Distant 1916).

Distribution

States

New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland

IBRA and IMCRA regions

IBRA

NSW, NT, Qld: Cape York Peninsula (CYP), Darwin Coastal (DAC), NSW North Coast (NNC), Sydney Basin (SB), South Eastern Queensland (SEQ), Wet Tropics (WT)

Diagnosis

Facies late triangularis ; fronte apice libere dependente. Oculi valde prominentes. Thorax parte postica producta angusta, marginem interiorem tegminum tangente, supra scutellum utrimque leviter emarginata, hujus latera baud tegente. Tegmina areolis apicalibus quinque, discoidalibus duabus. Pedes simplices, tibiis omnibus femoribus longioribus (Stål 1863)

The combination of large size, dark coloration, long clypeus, prominent ocelli equidistant from each other and from eyes, forwardly projecting lateral pronotal processes, narrow median pronotal process and absence of a coriaceous area in the subcostal cell make this genus distinctive (Day 1999).

Day (1999) also provided a comprehensive redescription of the genus.

ID Keys

Fletcher, M.J. and Day M. F. (2005) Illustrated Key to the Genera of the Family Membracidae found in Australia (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae: Membracidae) http://www1.dpi.nsw.gov.au/keys/leafhop/membracid/membrac00.htm [accessed: 11.iv.2012]

Diagnosis References

Stål, C. 1863. Hemipterorum exoticorum generum et specierum nonnullarum novarum descriptiones. Transactions of the Entomological Society of London 3 1: 571-603 [592]

General References

Day, M.F. 1999. The genera of Australian Membracidae (Hemiptera : Auchenorrhyncha). Invertebrate Taxonomy 13: 629-747 [712]

Distant, W.L. 1916. Rhynchotal Notes. lx. Annals and Magazine of Natural History 8(18): 19-44 [32]

History of changes