Species Horouta darwini Fletcher, 2009

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• Horouta darwini Fletcher, M.J. 2009. A new species of deltocephaline leafhoppers of the genus Horouta Knight from Barrow Island, Western Australia (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae). Records of the Western Australian Museum 25(3): 265–268 [265].

  Type data:

   Holotype WAM 71379 ♂ (coll: 15.iii.2006, S. Callan & R. Graham), Barrow Island, Western Australia, site GP2 [20°47'38"S 115°27'27"E].

 

Introduction

This is the only species of Horouta known from Western Australia with all known specimens having been collected on Barrow Island. The male specimens are all macropterous while the only known female is brachypterous. The species was described in a special volume of the Reccords of the Western Australian Museum to honour Charles Darwin on the 200th anniversary of his birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication in 1859 of “The Origin of Species”, one of the foundation publications in modern evolutionary science.

 

Distribution

States

Western Australia

Extra Distribution Information

Australian Endemic.

IBRA and IMCRA regions

IBRA

WA: Carnarvon (CAR)

Ecological Descriptors

All stages: phloem feeder.

 

Diagnosis

Horouta darwini differs from all other species of the genus, except for H. spinosa Fletcher, by the presence of well developed pygofer processes. In H. spinosa the processes extend transversely while in H. darwini they are mounted dorsally and curve forwards along the margin of the pygofer then ventrally as parallel processes. In addition, the subbasal processes on the aedeagus extend dorsally in H. darwini but are directed posteriorly in H. spinosa. The head is more angulate anteriorly in H. spinosa than in H. darwini in which the anterior margin of the head is broadly rounded. (Fletcher 2009).

 

ID Keys

This species will key to H. spinosa in the key provided by Fletcher (2004: 56) and can be differentiated by the features given here in the Diagnosis.

 

Diagnosis References

Fletcher, M.J. 2004. A revision of the genus Horouta Knight with description of two new species and notes on other species of Deltocephalinae (Hemipter: Cicadellidae). General and Applied Entomology 33: 45-54 [46]

Fletcher, M.J. 2009. A new species of deltocephaline leafhoppers of the genus Horouta Knight from Barrow Island, Western Australia (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae). Records of the Western Australian Museum 25(3): 265–268 [266–267]

 

History of changes

Published	As part of group	Action Date	Action Type	Compiler(s)
05-Dec-2019		13-Aug-2013	MODIFIED
05-Dec-2019		16-May-2012	MODIFIED
		27-Jun-2011	ADDED