Genus Sextius Stål, 1866

Museums

Regional Maps

• Sextius Stål, C. 1866. Hemiptera Homoptera Latr. Hemiptera Africana 4: 1-276 [88].

  Type species:

   Centrotus virescens Fairmaire, 1846 by subsequent designation, see Goding, F.W. 1903. A monograph of the Australian Membracidae. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 28: 2-41 [10].

 

Introduction

The genus Sextius Stål is currently the largest genus of Membracidae in Australia with ten species which also include the best known species, S. virescens (Fairmaire), the green treehopper, which is a familiar sight in most parts of Australia on Acacia feeding in groups of adults and nymphs and tended by ants. However, the species limits in the genus are not well known with 15 species-level names available. Evans (1966) was unable to differentiate the species which are mainly differentiated on the size and orientation of the lateral pronotal processes and on colour but these features are likely to be intraspecifically variable. A species level revision of the genus to determine what features validly differentiate species may find that there are many cryptic species perhaps associated with particular species of Acacia or that there are only a few variable and widespread species.

 

Distribution

States

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

Extra Distribution Information

Australian Endemic.

IBRA and IMCRA regions

IBRA

ACT, NSW, NT, Qld, SA, Vic, WA: Brigalow Belt North (BBN), Brigalow Belt South (BBS), Broken Hill Complex (BHC), Central Mackay Coast (CMC), Cobar Peneplain (CP), Cape York Peninsula (CYP), Darwin Coastal (DAC), Darling Riverine Plains (DRP), Flinders Lofty Block (FLB), Jarrah Forest (JF), MacDonnell Ranges (MAC), Mount Isa Inlier (MII), Nandewar (NAN), New England Tablelands (NET), Northern Kimberley (NK), NSW North Coast (NNC), 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), Swan Coastal Plain (SWA), Tiwi Cobourg (TIW), Victoria Bonaparte (VB), Wet Tropics (WT), Yalgoo (YAL)

Diagnosis

Thorace carina longitudinali percurrente instructo, cornubus lateralibus triquetris, processu postico toto tectiformi, subtus concaviusculo; lateribus scutelli haud vel levissime prominulis; areis apicalibus tegminum omnibus vel nonnullis anastomosibus in plures divisis (Stål 1866).

Most species are green or yellowish when alive, all species with reticulate venation. Pronotal notch absent. Clypeus very short, wide, directed posteriorly. Lateral pronotal processes short or absent. Scutellum obscured by pronotum. Hind tibia without cucullate setae (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

Day, M.F. 1999. The genera of Australian Membracidae (Hemiptera : Auchenorrhyncha). Invertebrate Taxonomy 13: 629-747 [716–718]

Stål, C. 1866. Hemiptera Homoptera Latr. Hemiptera Africana 4: 1-276 [88]

 

History of changes

Published	As part of group	Action Date	Action Type	Compiler(s)
16-May-2012		16-May-2012	MODIFIED
26-Apr-2012		26-Apr-2012	MODIFIED
		12-Feb-2010	(import)