Species Varcia affinis (Kirby, 1889)

Museums

Regional Maps

• Ricania affinis Kirby, W.F. 1889. On the insects (exclusive of Coleoptera and Lepidoptera) of Christmas Island. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1888: 546-555 [Date published 1 April 1889] [554].

  Type data:

   Syntype(s) BMNH ♂, quantity unknown (possible holotype by monotypy), Christmas Island.

Generic Combinations

• Varcia affinis (Kirby, 1889). —
  Distant, W.L. 1909. Rhynchota Notes. xlix. Annals and Magazine of Natural History 4(4): 320-338 [336]

Introduction

This is one of two species of the genus described by Kirby (1889) from Christmas Island. They differ mainly in coloration but Kirby (1889) indicates that he has at least one male for each species so an examination of the male genitalia of his type material will determine whether the colour differences are of species significance.

Distribution

Other Regions

Christmas Island terrestrial & freshwater

Ecological Descriptors

All stages: phloem feeder.

Diagnosis

Exp. al. 20 millim.; long. corp. 7 millim. Male. Head yellow, with four keels; vertex depressed, brown, except at the sides and on the median line; front quadricarinate, the angles of the outer carinae very prominent, the middle ones hardly projecting on the frontal edge; all the carinae black, and with a short dark line on the clypeus between them, the middle ones rather wide apart, and meeting in a point at the extremity of the clypeus. Thorax and abdomen blackish brown above, the thorax tricarinate, varied with ferruginous on the sides and along the outer edges of the two outer carinae; abdomen with the second segment greenish, and the base of the three following segments ferruginous. Under surface of the body and legs yellowish; the four front tibiae brownish above; abdominal segments edged behind with a green line; the last two segments reddish brown. Wings hyaline; fore wings with the costal space yellow as far as the black stigma, beyond which is a hyaline space; hind margin broadly purplish brown, intersected by a curved line nearly parallel to the hind margin; within the middle of this runs a narrow vitreous stripe covering the outer half of seven cells; one or two very irregular series of transverse cells beyond the middle of the wing, not even uniform on both sides; inner marginal region tinged with yellow, but less strongly than the costa; costal cross-nervures not forked, but most of the apical nervures beyond the stigma and on the hind margin are forked. Hind wings hyaline, brown along the hind margin, the first six or seven marginal nervures from the tip furcate or bifurcate (Kirby 1889).

Diagnosis References

Kirby, W.F. 1889. On the insects (exclusive of Coleoptera and Lepidoptera) of Christmas Island. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1888: 546-555 [Date published 1 April 1889] [554]

History of changes