Species Sardia rostrata Melichar, 1903

Sardia rostrata Melichar, adult female

© Copyright Murray J. Fletcher, Agricultural Scientific Collections Unit, Orange NSW

Museums

Regional Maps

• Sardia rostrata Melichar, L. 1903. Homopteren-Fauna von Ceylon. Berlin: Felix L. Dames. 248 pp. [96].

  Type data:

   Syntype(s) NHMV 3 ♀ (coll. ii.1902, Dr Uzel), Henarat[h]goda, Sri Lanka.
• Hadeodelphax pluto Kirkaldy, G.W. 1906. Leafhoppers and their natural enemies. Bulletin of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association Experimental Station Entomological Series 1(9): 271-479 [410].

  Type data:

   Lectotype BPBM ♂ (coll: vii–viii, 1904, Koebele's No. 2247.), Cairns, Queensland.
  Paralectotype(s) BPBM ♂ (Coll. Aug. 1904), Cairns, Queensland.

  Subsequent designation references:

  Bellis, G.A. & Donaldson, J.F. 2015. Reassessment of some of Kirkaldy's Australian species of Delphacini (Hemiptera: Delphacidae: Delphacinae). Austral Entomology 1-13 [First published on line 17 December 2015 with pagination 1–13. Print version published August 2016, vol 55(3), 247-260] [7].
• Hadeodelphax pluto pallidior Kirkaldy, G.W. 1907. Leafhoppers — Supplement (Hemiptera). Bulletin of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association Experimental Station Entomological Series 3: 1-186 [140].

  Type data:

   Lectotype BPBM ♀ (label data = "2247"), Unknown.

  Subsequent designation references:

  Bellis, G.A. & Donaldson, J.F. 2015. Reassessment of some of Kirkaldy's Australian species of Delphacini (Hemiptera: Delphacidae: Delphacinae). Austral Entomology 1-13 [First published on line 17 December 2015 with pagination 1–13. Print version published August 2016, vol 55(3), 247-260] [7].

Taxonomic Decision for Synonymy

• Bellis, G.A. & Donaldson, J.F. 2015. Reassessment of some of Kirkaldy's Australian species of Delphacini (Hemiptera: Delphacidae: Delphacinae). Austral Entomology 1-13 [First published on line 17 December 2015 with pagination 1–13. Print version published August 2016, vol 55(3), 247-260] [7]

Generic Combinations

• Sardia rostrata pluto (Kirkaldy, 1906). —
  Fennah, R.G. 1965. Delphacidae from Australia and New Zealand (Homoptera: Fulgoroidea). Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) Entomology 17(1): 1-59 [44]
• Hadeodelphax pluto (Kirkaldy, 1906). —
  Yang, C.T. 1989. Delphacidae of Taiwan II (Homoptera: Fulgoroidea). National Science Council Special Publications, Taiwan 6: 1-334 [284]

Introduction

This species, which is fairly distinctive in its structure and colouring, has had a complex nomenclatural history. Muir (1923) synonymised Hadeodelphax pluto with Sardia rostrata Melichar on the basis that the differences between them (variations in colour and head length) are not specific. Fennah (1965), apparently unaware of Muir's (1923) synonymy, also stated that he could find no differences to justify the existence of two species and placed pluto as a subspecies, the typical subspecies being described originally from Sri Lanka. Sardia rostrata has been recorded widely in the Oriental and Pacific regions from Sri Lanka to Fiji but the geographical limits of the two subspecies were not defined. Yang (1989) rejected the synonymies and re-established Hadeodelphax and H. pluto as the taxon present in Australia. Bellis et al. (2013) maintained these names pending further investigation. Bellis and Donaldson (2015) examined the material from Taiwan on which Yang based his decision and determined that it was very different from the species occurring in Sri Lanka and in Australia and restored the synonymy of Hadeodelphax and H. pluto with Sardia and S. rostrata, respectively. The material examined by Yang was recognised by Bellis and Donaldson (2015) as representing an undescribed species in a new genus which they described as Yangdelphax jihyuetanica Bellis and Donaldson.

Kirkaldy (1907) had also described a variety of H. pluto (var. pallidior) from Queensland and Fiji and this variety was also synonymised with S. rostrata by Bellis and Donaldson (2015).

Distribution

States

New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, Western Australia

IBRA and IMCRA regions

IBRA

NSW, NT, Qld, WA: Arnhem Coast (ARC), Brigalow Belt North (BBN), Central Kimberley (CK), Cape York Peninsula (CYP), Mitchell Grass Downs (MGD), Sydney Basin (SB), South Eastern Queensland (SEQ), Victoria Bonaparte (VB), Wet Tropics (WT)

Other Regions

Cocos (Keeling) Islands terrestrial & freshwater

Ecological Descriptors

All stages: phloem feeder.

Diagnosis

Blackish piceous; antennae and legs testaceous. Tegmina dark smoky, first and second apical cells and apex of costal cell hyaline; commissure whitish, with a black spot near apex of clavus. Length: 4.25 mill. (Kirkaldy 1906, of Hadeodelphax pluto).

Anal segment of male with lateroapical angles widely separated, each produced medially into a long spinose ventrally directed process. Pygofer with laterodorsal angle not produced, in posterior view with opening as wide as long, lateral margins weakly defined, slightly convex. Aedeagus with apical third slightly narrowed, lacking processes but with 4–5 teeth on dorsal aspect near apex. Gonopore terminal, on dorsal surface. Suspensorium deeply incised ventrally, straight dorsally. Diaphragm very narrow, dorsal margin produced dorsad, apical margin incised medially. Parameres simple, gently converging apically to pointed tips. (Bellis and Donaldson 2015)

Diagnosis References

Bellis, G.A. & Donaldson, J.F. 2015. Reassessment of some of Kirkaldy's Australian species of Delphacini (Hemiptera: Delphacidae: Delphacinae). Austral Entomology 1-13 [First published on line 17 December 2015 with pagination 1–13. Print version published August 2016, vol 55(3), 247-260] [8]

Kirkaldy, G.W. 1906. Leafhoppers and their natural enemies. Bulletin of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association Experimental Station Entomological Series 1(9): 271-479 [410–411]

General References

Bellis, G.A., Donaldson, J.F., Quintao, V., Rice, A., Tenakanai, D. & Tran-Nguyen, L. 2013. New records of Delphacini (Hemiptera: Delphacidae: Delphacinae) from Australia, Timor Leste and Papua New Guinea, and an updated checklist of Delphacini from Australia. Austral Entomology 1–8 [Pagination is from electronic version; print version Austral Entomology (2014) 53, 167–174] [3]

Bellis, G.A. & Donaldson, J.F. 2015. Reassessment of some of Kirkaldy's Australian species of Delphacini (Hemiptera: Delphacidae: Delphacinae). Austral Entomology 1-13 [First published on line 17 December 2015 with pagination 1–13. Print version published August 2016, vol 55(3), 247-260] [8]

Fennah, R.G. 1965. Delphacidae from Australia and New Zealand (Homoptera: Fulgoroidea). Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) Entomology 17(1): 1-59 [44]

Kirkaldy, G.W. 1907. Leafhoppers — Supplement (Hemiptera). Bulletin of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association Experimental Station Entomological Series 3: 1-186 [140]

Muir, F. 1923. Two species of Delphacidae (Homoptera) from Kermadec Archipelago. Transactions of the New Zealand Institute 54: 257 [257]

Yang, C.T. 1989. Delphacidae of Taiwan II (Homoptera: Fulgoroidea). National Science Council Special Publications, Taiwan 6: 1-334 [284]

History of changes