Species Smicrocotis obscura Kirkaldy, 1906

Museums

Regional Maps

• Smicrocotis obscura Kirkaldy, G.W. 1906. Leafhoppers and their natural enemies. Bulletin of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association Experimental Station Entomological Series 1(9): 271-479 [370].

  Type data:

   Syntype(s) BPBM sex, quantity unknown (coll.: viii.1904), Cairns, Queensland.
• Smicrocotis infuscata Distant, W.L. 1907. Contributions to a knowledge of the Ledrinae. Annales de la Société Entomologique de Belgique (Comptes-rendus) 51: 185-197 [195].

  Type data:

   Holotype BMNH ♀, Gayndah, Queensland.
• Smicrocotis pallescens Distant, W.L. 1907. Contributions to a knowledge of the Ledrinae. Annales de la Société Entomologique de Belgique (Comptes-rendus) 51: 185-197 [195].

  Type data:

   Holotype BMNH ♀, New South Wales.
• Smicrocotis projecta Distant, W.L. 1907. Contributions to a knowledge of the Ledrinae. Annales de la Société Entomologique de Belgique (Comptes-rendus) 51: 185-197 [196].

  Type data:

   Holotype BMNH ♀, New South Wales.
• Smicrocotis sidnica Kirkaldy, G.W. 1907. Leafhoppers — Supplement (Hemiptera). Bulletin of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association Experimental Station Entomological Series 3: 1-186 [28].

  Type data:

   Syntype(s) BPBM ♂, quantity unknown (coll.: i.1905, Koebele), Sydney, New South Wales.
• Smicrocotis chelonia Evans, J.W. 1937. Australian Leafhoppers (Jassoidea: Homoptera). Part 7. — Stenocotidae. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 11(2): 157-164 [160].

  Type data:

   Holotype AM ♂ (coll.: 1069 m, F.E. Wilson), National Park, Tasmania.

 

Taxonomic Decision for Synonymy

• Evans, J.W. 1966. The leafhoppers and froghoppers of Australia and New Zealand. Memoirs of the Australian Museum 12: 1-347 [109] (synonymy of S. infuscata, S. pallescens, S. projecta and S. chelonia)
• Shcherbakov, D.E., Fletcher, M.J. & Day, M.F. 2000. Ant attendance and nocturnal feeding of the leafhopper Smicrocotis obscura Kirkaldy (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae: Ledrinae). Australian Entomologist 27(2): 39-43 [42] (synonymy of S. sidnica)

 

Introduction

This is the most common and widespread species of the genus. It is also quite variable as well as being sexually dimorphic, males tending to be smaller and darker than the females. Shcherbakov et al. (2000) provided some biological information on the species which feeds at night on the trunks of eucalypt trees and is tended by ants of the genus Camponotus Mayr in what appears to be an early stage of interspecific association.

 

Distribution

States

New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia

Extra Distribution Information

Australian Endemic.

IBRA and IMCRA regions

IBRA

NSW, Qld, SA, Tas, Vic, WA: Australian Alps (AA), Brigalow Belt North (BBN), Brigalow Belt South (BBS), Jarrah Forest (JF), Kanmantoo (KAN), Nandewar (NAN), New England Tablelands (NET), NSW North Coast (NNC), Sydney Basin (SB), South East Coastal Plain (SCP), South Eastern Highlands (SEH), South Eastern Queensland (SEQ), Tasmanian Southern Ranges (TSR), Victorian Midlands (VM), Wet Tropics (WT)

Ecological Descriptors

All stages: ant attended, phloem feeder.

 

Diagnosis

Dark brown, irrorated with black (which forms several more or less distinct longitudinal lines on the pronotum). Frons basally blackish brown. Tegmina pallid, mottled closely with brown and brownish black. Length: 10 mill. (Kirkaldy 1906).

Crown of head considerably wider in the centre than against the eyes, sometimes laterally sinuate and with a median longitudinal ridge and a pair of lateral oblique ridges; apically upturned, brown. Pronotum and scutellum concolorous with the crown. Tegmen pale brown or greyish, with a pale, or dark brown, scribble pattern and sometimes with oval, white markings of varying size. Length ♀ 8–13mm (Evans 1966).

 

ID Keys

Evans 1966: 108–109

 

Diagnosis References

Evans, J.W. 1966. The leafhoppers and froghoppers of Australia and New Zealand. Memoirs of the Australian Museum 12: 1-347 [109]

Kirkaldy, G.W. 1906. Leafhoppers and their natural enemies. Bulletin of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association Experimental Station Entomological Series 1(9): 271-479 [370]

 

General References

Shcherbakov, D.E., Fletcher, M.J. & Day, M.F. 2000. Ant attendance and nocturnal feeding of the leafhopper Smicrocotis obscura Kirkaldy (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae: Ledrinae). Australian Entomologist 27(2): 39-43

 

History of changes

Published	As part of group	Action Date	Action Type	Compiler(s)
20-Sep-2011		20-Sep-2011	MOVED
		12-Feb-2010	(import)