Species Siphanta nubecula Jacobi, 1928

Siphanta nubecula Jacobi, adult

© Copyright Murray Fletcher, Orange Agricultural Institute.

Museums

Regional Maps

• Siphanta nubecula Jacobi, A. 1928. Results of Dr E. Mjöberg's Swedish Scientific Expeditions to Australia 1910-1913. Rhynchota, Homoptera. 1. Fulgoridae und Cercopidae. Arkiv för Zoologi 19A(28): 1-50 [18].

  Type data:

   Holotype NHRM ♀ (coll.: Mjöberg, holotype by monotypy), Kimberley district, Western Australia.

Introduction

This species has an unusual appearance with a mottled appearance of the tegmen which also has prominent veins. It was not placed in a species group by Fletcher (1985) although there are similarities in the male genitalia with S. anomala Fletcher. It is distributed across the very northern regions of Western Australia and adjacent parts of the Northern Territory.

Distribution

States

Northern Territory, Western Australia

IBRA and IMCRA regions

IBRA

NT, WA: Arnhem Plateau (ARP), Central Kimberley (CK), Daly Basin (DAB), Darwin Coastal (DAC), Northern Kimberley (NK), Pine Creek (PCK), Tiwi Cobourg (TIW), Victoria Bonaparte (VB)

Ecological Descriptors

All stages: phloem feeder.

Diagnosis

Green with pale mottling on tegmina. Apex of head and lateral margins of frons and vertex marked with red. Tegmina with bright green patches separated by pallid areas giving mottled appearance. Granules dark, usually surrounded by red, particularly on clavus. Costal margin pallid with fine red spotting at very edge, to apex of costal cell, thence bordered with red around apical margin to apex of clavus, red interrupted at vein endings. Fore- and mid-femora, tibiae and tarsi spotted with red and black. Tegmen in some specimens with oblique pale stripe. Frons with median carina, lateral margins of frons strongly convex near frontoclypeal suture; vertex rectangular, very slightly angulately produced apically. Tegmen with crossveins distinct, widely separated; apical angle rounded; sutural angle nearly rightangled; M1+2 branched level with apex of clavus. Male pygofer with slight protuberance at laterodorsal corner but lacking distinct process. Paramere elongate, triangular with short pointed process at apex. Female third valvulae short, triangular with pilose area ventral. Second valvulae gap wide with apices of valvulae converging (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 [21–22]

History of changes