Species Siphanta bifida Fletcher, 1985

Museums

Regional Maps

• Siphanta bifida Fletcher, M.J. 1985. Revision of the genus Siphanta Stål (Homoptera: Fulgoroidea: Flatidae). Australian Journal of Zoology Supplementary Series 110: 1-94 [9].

  Type data:

   Holotype ANIC 9447 ♂ (coll.: 17.iii.1964, I.F.B. Common & M.S. Upton, 3400 ft), 18 miles NE Atherton, Queensland.

Introduction

This species is only known from the wet tropics of North Queensland. It is distinctive in the shape of the male paramere and in the presence of a pale greenish yellow band inside the fine red marginal markings on the tegmen. It was placed by Fletcher (1985) in the acuta group.

Distribution

States

Queensland

IBRA and IMCRA regions

IBRA

Qld: Wet Tropics (WT)

Ecological Descriptors

All stages: phloem feeder.

Diagnosis

acuta group. Head produced medially in front of eyes so that frons apically convex and vertex at least half as long as wide. Frons with three short longitudinal carinae indicated near apex. Tegmen usually triangular with apical angle rounded and sutural angle right-angled or acutely produced dorsally. M1+2 branched level with apex of clavus. Coloration green or grey-green, often fading to yellow in dried specimens. Males usually duller than females. Apex of head, apices of fore- and mid-tibiae and all tarsi and often lateral angles of frons marked with red. Tegmen with minute granulations in all cells leaving bare circular spot in centre of each cell. Costal margin pallid, then narrowly red around apical margin and claval margin to apex of clavus. This colour pattern is fairly stable throughout the group (variation is noted below) but individuals may lack all red coloration or show other individual variation.
S. bifida. Ground colour in male green with grey-green tegmina, in female orange to yellow (probably green in life). All red areas brightly coloured. Tegmen with granules dark. Apical red margin to tegmen not broken by apices of veins, with pale greenish yellow band interior to this. Veins dark. Frons with three strong carinae; vertex evenly rounded anteriorly. Tegmen with apical angle nearly right-angled, sutural angle acute so that apical margin very slightly concave. Male pygofer with large tapered, pointed process. Paramere with blunt dorsal process at about midlength and with dorsal and apical margins meeting at rightangles to produce apparent second dorsal process, margin evenly concave between the two. Female third valvulae parallel-sided, apically obliquely and roundly truncate with pilose area ventral. Second valvulae gap about twice as wide as deep. Anal tube with deep V-shaped notch in apex (Fletcher 1985).

ID Keys

Fletcher 1985: 4
Fletcher, M.J. (2005). Illustrated Key to the species of the genus Siphanta Stål (Hemiptera: Fulgoroidea: Flatidae) http://www1.dpi.nsw.gov.au/keys/fulgor/flatid/siphanta/siph00.htm

Diagnosis References

Fletcher, M.J. 1985. Revision of the genus Siphanta Stål (Homoptera: Fulgoroidea: Flatidae). Australian Journal of Zoology Supplementary Series 110: 1-94 [9–10]

History of changes