Species Siphanta granulata Kirkaldy, 1906

Siphanta granulata Kirkaldy, adult

© Copyright Murray Fletcher, Orange Agricultural Institute.

Museums

Regional Maps

• Siphanta granulata Kirkaldy, G.W. 1906. Leafhoppers and their natural enemies. Bulletin of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association Experimental Station Entomological Series 1(9): 271-479 [455].

  Type data:

   Holotype BPBM ♂ (coll.: vii.1904; holotype by monotypy), Cairns, Queensland.

Introduction

As with S. angustata, this species has been found in the arid regions of four Australian States, although records from Cairns, in the wet tropics of North Queensland and Sir Graham Moore Island, Western Australia show that it is not restricted to inland areas. Fletcher (1985) placed it in the roseicincta group on the basis of its general appearance and external morphology but the structure of the male genitalia is unlike any other in the genus Siphanta, particularly the desclerotisation of the paramere.

Distribution

States

Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia

IBRA and IMCRA regions

IBRA

NT, Qld, SA, WA: Arnhem Coast (ARC), Arnhem Plateau (ARP), Brigalow Belt North (BBN), Brigalow Belt South (BBS), Burt Plain (BRT), Coolgardie (COO), Central Ranges (CR), Daly Basin (DAB), Dampierland (DL), Great Victoria Desert (GVD), Northern Kimberley (NK), South Eastern Queensland (SEQ), Wet Tropics (WT)

Other Regions

Torres Strait Islands terrestrial, marine & freshwater

Ecological Descriptors

All stages: phloem feeder.

Diagnosis

roseicincta Group. Head short, vertex no more than ½ as long as wide at base. Apical margin of vertex roundly or angularly produced slightly. Frons wider than long or as wide as long with strong median longitudinal carina but lateral carinae obsolete or indicated at very apex only. Tegmen narrow with apical angle rounded and sutural angle rounded or obtusely angulate, never produced. M1+2 branched at about middle of tegmen, well before apex of clavus. Green, fading to yellow or orange in dried specimens. Frons dark brown in most species. Apex of head, carinae of frons, outer claval vein, fore- and mid-tibiae and all tarsi usually marked with red. Tegminal granules black at tip. Margin of tegmen except base of costal margin and claval margin to apex of clavus marked with red.
S. granulata. Frons brown in most specimens. Tegmina fading to translucent yellow or orange. First marginal cell beyond apex of clavus usually completely red or reddish brown. Costal margin usually pale to apex of costal cell. Lateral carinae of frons obsolete; vertex depressed medially so that apical margin of frons appears angulately concave in anterior view; eyes prominent. Male pygofer with long straight process, slightly clavate towards apex. Paramere largely desclerotized, with only dorsal edge and pointed process near apex sclerotized. Female third valvulae bilaterally flattened in apical portion with pilose area on inner surfaces. Second valvulae gap U-shaped, about as deep as wide (Fletcher 1985).

ID Keys

Fletcher 1985: 4–6
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 [34–35]

History of changes