Nymphocixia (Fennah, 1971)

Barrantes Barrantes, Edwin A., Zumbado Echavarria, Marco A., Bartlett, Charles R., Helmick, Ericka E. & Bahder, Brian W., 2022, A new species of Oecleus (Hemiptera: Auchenorrhyncha: Fulgoroidea: Cixiidae) from the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica and a reassessment of the generic status of Nymphomyndus, Zootaxa 5133 (4), pp. 509-526 : 521

Status of Nymphocixia and Nymphomyndus

Nymphocixia unipunctata ( Fig. 11 ) was described from Mexico (Isla Espíritu Santo, Gulf of California; Van Duzee 1923) with the genus established to accommodate the species due to characteristics of the head compared to Oecleus (greatly elevated lateral carinae of vertex with vertex hiding the pronotum). Nymphomyndus caribbea ( Fig. 12 ) was originally described as Nymphocixia ( Fennah 1971) , however, Emeljanov (2007) established Nymphomyndus for N. caribbea based on differences in the head. Emeljanov (2007) discussed Nymphocixia in comparison with his new genus Nymphomyndus (and the monobasic genus Nesomyndus Jacobi from Madagascar), but provided little for diagnostic comparisons among genera. The key diagnostic differences between the genera appear to be that in Nymphomyndus the lateral margins of the vertex (dorsal view) are anteriorly converging (parallel in Nymphocixia ), the posterior margin of the vertex does not entirely overlap the pronotum (posterior margin of vertex overlapping in Nymphocixia ) and in lateral view, anterior profile of head “almost straight in distal three-quarters” (quoting Emeljanov (2007: 292) from Fennah (1971: 313) (versus smoothly rounding in Nymphocixia ) ( Fig. 13 ).

The level of variability between Nymphocixia and Nymphomyndus for 18S is significantly less than what was observed among other genera, indicating that the separation into these two genera was not warranted. Because the features listed by (Van Duzee as indicative of Nymphocixia are present in Nymphomyndus caribbea , lack of strong characters to merit the establishment of Nymphomyndus as a distinct genus, and strong molecular support that Nymphocixia and Nymphomyndus are closely related, we here synonymize Nymphomyndus under Nymphocixia , with the composition of Nymphocixia as follows.

Figures

FIGURE 11. Adult Nymphocixia unipunctata; (A) dorsal view of adult male, (B) lateral view of adult male, (C) dorsal view of adult female, (D) lateral view of adult female, (E) lateral view of terminalia, (F) ventral view of terminalia, (G) left lateral view of aedeagus, (H) right lateral view of aedeagus, (I) ventral view of aedeagus, and (J) dorsal view of aedeagus; scale = 1 mm.

FIGURE 12. Adult Nymphocixia caribbea; (A) dorsal view of adult male, (B) lateral view of adult male, (C) dorsal view of adult female, (D) lateral view of adult female, (E) lateral view of terminalia, (F) ventral view of terminalia, (G) left lateral view of aedeagus, (H) right lateral view of aedeagus, (I) ventral view of aedeagus, and (J) dorsal view of aedeagus; scale = 1 mm.

FIGURE 13. Adult Nymphocixia unipunctata; (A) lateral view of head, (B) dorsal view of head and (C) frontal view of head; Adult Nymphocixia caribbea; (D) lateral view of head, (E) dorsal view of head and (F) frontal view of head.