Genus Cebes Distant, 1916

Cebes transiens (Walker), type species of Cebes Distant.

© Copyright Murray Fletcher, Orange Agricultural Institute.

Museums

Regional Maps

• Cebes Distant, W.L. 1916. Rhynchotal Notes. lx. Annals and Magazine of Natural History 8(18): 19-44 [39].

  Type species:

   Centrotus transiens Walker, 1851 by subsequent designation, see Funkhouser, W.D. 1927. General Catalogue of the Hemiptera. Fasc. I. Membracidae. Northamton, Massachusetts : Smith College 581 pp. [354].

Introduction

This genus contains three mid brown, elegantly slender species distributed mainly in southeastern mainland Australia although Funkhouser (1951) lists Papua New Guinea for one of the species. Day (1999) indicated that the type species was set by "original designation". The only reference to a type species by Distant (1916) was in his description of the genus, where he noted that the posterior pronotal processes reached the "tegminal apices (at least, in type)". It is not clear to which of the two species he is referring to. The intimation is that he had only seen one of the species and this feature was apparent in that species at least. As one of the two species he included in the genus was described as new in that paper, Cebes godingi Distant, it is presumed that he had specimens of that species and it is to this that he appears to be referring as the "type". However, because of the doubt about his intention, the type species is here taken as having been set by the next available reviewer who was Goding (1939) who clearly stated that C. transiens (Walker) was the type species.

Distribution

States

Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, South Australia, Victoria

IBRA and IMCRA regions

IBRA

ACT, NSW, SA, Vic: Darling Riverine Plains (DRP), Flinders Lofty Block (FLB), Sydney Basin (SB), South East Corner (SEC), South Eastern Highlands (SEH), Victorian Volcanic Plain (VVP)

Diagnosis

Body elongate; tegmina about two and a half times as long as broad ("the third apical cell, very long and narrow, crossed by several transverse venules," Goding); pronotum centrally carinate, the anterior lateral processes triquetrous, conical, more or less directed outwardly and a little upwardly; posterior process tectiform, almost straight, slightly narrowed above scutellum, gradually acuminate to apex, curved downward, impinging on tegminal margin and reaching tegminal apices (at least, in type); ocelli above a line passing through the centre of the eyes, from which they are nearly as far apart as from each other (Distant 1916).

Day (1999) provided a comprehensive redescription of the genus.

ID Keys

Fletcher, M.J. and Day M. F. (2005) Illustrated Key to the Genera of the Family Membracidae found in Australia (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae: Membracidae) http://www1.dpi.nsw.gov.au/keys/leafhop/membracid/membrac00.htm [accessed: 4.iv.2012]

Diagnosis References

Day, M.F. 1999. The genera of Australian Membracidae (Hemiptera : Auchenorrhyncha). Invertebrate Taxonomy 13: 629-747 [658–660]

Distant, W.L. 1916. Rhynchotal Notes. lx. Annals and Magazine of Natural History 8(18): 19-44 [39]

General References

Day, M.F. 1999. The genera of Australian Membracidae (Hemiptera : Auchenorrhyncha). Invertebrate Taxonomy 13: 629-747 [658]

Funkhouser, W.D. 1951. Homoptera, Fam. Membracidae. Genera Insectorum 208: 1-383 [242]

Goding, F.W. 1939. The Old World Membracidae. Journal of the New York Entomological Society 47: 315-349 [???]

History of changes