Tamasa caverna, Moulds & Olive, 2014

Moulds, Max S. & Olive, John C., 2014, A New Species of Tamasa Distant from an Unusual Cave-like Habitat in Australia (Cicadidae: Cicadinae: Tamasini), Records of the Australian Museum 66 (5), pp. 265-270 : 265-269

Tamasa caverna n. sp.

Figs 4–10

Types. Holotype male, 12.i.2003, Black Mountain near Cooktown, Nth QLD, J. Olive ( QM) . Paratypes as follows, all from Queensland: 1♂, Black Mountain near Cooktown , 12.i.2003, J. Olive ( AM) ; 1♂, Black Mountain near Cooktown , 12.i.2003, J. Olive ; 1♂ 1♀, Black Mountain , 15°39'06"S 145°12'55"E 11, 11.i.2004, J. C. Olive ; 3♂♂, Black Mountain near Cooktown , 23.i.2014, J. Olive & S. Orr ; 1♂, Black Mountain near Cooktown , 24.i.2014, J. Olive ( JO) . 1♂ (genitalia prep. T79), Black Mountain, south of Cooktown , 15°39.1'S 145°13.2'E, 11.i.2004, J. Olive ; 1♂, 1♀ (female specimen no. 04.QLD.STO.11, voucher for molecular sample), Black Mountain , S of Cooktown, 15°39.1'S 145°13.2'E, 12.i.2004, Cooley, Hill, Marshall, Moulds ( MSM) . 1♂, Black Mountain via Cooktown , 4.i.2001, R. Morgan ( LWP) .

Description

Male. Figs 4, 6–9 .

Head brown; central area around ocelli black and not reaching posterior margin; area adjacent to epicranial suture brown; a dark brown triangular mark situated about midway between lateral ocellus and lateral cranial depression; a transverse black mark extends from anterior cranial depression almost to eye but reaching eye in some specimens; a further black mark from anterior cranial depression to supra antennal plate; supra antennal plate brown, black centrally; cranial depressions brown; a black line adjacent to eye ventrally; ocelli yellow to reddish amber; postclypeus brown with transverse grooves dark brown to black, moderately covered with silvery-white cilia; a welldefined broad brown fascia ventrally at midline narrowing toward centre of its length; lorum brown, broad dark brown to black mark adjacent to postclypeus; anteclypeus brown with dark brown midline and black distally; rostrum usually reaching well beyond distal margin of hind coxae but just reaching in some specimens, light brown with a dark brown fascia ventrally at midline, darker brown or black apically; antennae dark brown to black.

Thorax. Pronotum light brown with a black mark either side of midline extending from anterior margin to pronotal collar, these broader anteriorly and always joined at pronotal collar and sometimes at anterior margin; a broad brown fascia on midline, broader anteriorly, area between lateral fissure and pronotal collar with black mark anteriorly and a dark brown mark posteriorly; area between lateral and paramedian fissures with black mark anteriorly and a dark brown lineal mark somewhat parallel to midline posteriorly; pronotal collar light brown to cream with anterior margin black. Mesonotum brown; submedian sigilla well defined with broad black inner margin and a thin black line along parapsidal suture; scutal depressions dark brown or black; a dark brown or black fascia at midline extending anteriorly from between scutal depressions, often tapering anteriorly and sometimes expanding laterally between the scutal depressions; lateral sigilla not clearly defined with variable amount of dark pigmentation but always with dark brown or black patch adjacent to pronotal collar and at apex; arms of cruciform elevation brown.

Legs brown, fore femora with a broad brown or black linear fascia dorsally, extending almost to distal margin where it curves downward on the outer side to terminate more or less hook-like; inner side of fore femora with a dark brown fascia extending full length and extending to each femoral spur; femoral spurs black; fore coxae with a broad black fascia along midline and a black patch distally on the inside; mid and hind coxae with a black patch distally on the outer side.

Opercula ( Fig. 6 ) light brown to cream with margins black and distomedial area usually dark brown or black; moderately covered with silvery-white cilia; usually widely separated but meeting or nearly so in some specimens; lateral and distal margins evenly curved forming a semi-circle; medial margin straight.

lobe, ds distal shoulder, pyg pygofer, th theca, un uncus.

Wings hyaline; costal vein light brown to node; subcostal and radius anterior veins dark brown; veins forming cubital and ulnar cells light brown; median veins and cubitus anterior veins dark brown; ambient vein and veins forming bases of apical cells 1−5 and 7 dark brown; sometimes weakly tinted at distal ends of apical cells 1–4; infuscated at cross veins r and r-m; basal membrane grey; basal cell opaque to lightly translucent brown sometimes becoming hyaline distally. Hind wings hyaline; veins dark brown; jugum infuscated basally but remainder of anal lobe hyaline.

Abdomen brown; moderately covered with silvery white cilia; tergite 1 light brown; tergite 2 light brown, the timbal covers weakly developed, broadly triangular with anterior margins black and curled upward; tergite 3 with narrow dark brown or black anterior margin becoming broader laterally; tergites 4 to 7 usually with some dark coloration along anterior margin but absent in some specimens; tergite 8 with a broad dark brown or black patch either side of midline adjacent to anterior margin. Sternites black, light yellow-brown along posterior margins of sternites 1–6, sternite 7 entirely black, sternite 8 light brown with black fascia along midline.

Timbals ( Fig. 7 ) with five ribs; ribs 1–3 long and of similar length, ribs 4 and 5 shorter with rib 5 shortest; ribs 1 and 2 always joined dorsally, the lower half of ribs 1 to 4 broader, rib 5 thin for its entire length.

Female ( Fig. 5 ). Similar to male. Abdominal segment 8 light brown on its lower half and black on its upper half. Ovipositor brown, black apically; ovipositor sheath not reaching beyond anal styles and dorsal beak.

Measurements. The range and mean (in mm) for all available specimens (9♂♂ and 2♀♀). Body length, male 23–26.5 (23.83), female 24.0–24.4 (24.2); forewing length, male 32–36 (34.05), female 34.6–35 (34.8); head width, male 8–9 (8.49), female 8.5–8.9 (8.7); pronotum width, male 8.5–10 (9.09), female 9.3–9.5 (9.4); abdomen width, male 9–10 (9.61), female 9.4–9.5 (9.45).

Distinguishing features. Tamasa caverna n. sp. is most similar to T. doddi (Goding & Froggatt, 1904) and T. burgessi (Distant, 1905) but is easily distinguished from those two species in lacking infuscation at the tips of the fore wings. The male genitalia of T. caverna appear to be unique in having an uncus that is substantially tubular and in lateral view tapers to a bluntly rounded apex and a theca that is straight for most of its length with a trumpet-like apex very finely fluted around its rim.

Etymology. Named from the Latin caverna meaning a cave, grotto or cavern and referring to the cavern-like habitat of the singing males.

Figures

Figures 4–7. Tamasa caverna n. sp. (4) male, dorsal view; (5) female dorsal view; (6) male body ventral view showing opercula; (7) male timbal and timbal cover.

Figures 8–9. Tamasa caverna n. sp., male genitalia. (8) lateral view; (9) ventral view. bl basal

Figure 10. Tamasa caverna n. sp., oscillogram (A) and sonogram (B) showing three-second fragment of revving song component, specimen number 04.AU.QL.STO.10. Sound energy (mainly background noise) below 2 kHz was removed before illustration. The recording was made on a Sony TCD-D8 digital recorder sampling at 48 kHz, with a Sennheiser ME62 condenser microphone powered by a Sennheiser K6 power module using battery power and a Sony PBR-330 parabolic reflector. The sonogram and oscillogram were generated in Raven Pro 1.4 build 48, with default settings plus a Hann window set to 256 samples and a 3 dB filter bandwidth of 270 Hz. The recording was made on 11 January 2004 at Black Mountain, south of Cooktown. The ambient air temperature at the road during the recording was 31.5°C; temperatures among the rocks were cooler.