Cephalalna Boulard, 2006a

Sanborn, Allen F., 2021, The cicadas (Hemiptera: Cicadoidea: Cicadidae) of Madagascar including a new tribe, five new genera, twelve new species, four new species synonymies, five revised species status, ten new combinations, new tribal assignments for four genera, one new subtribe synonymy, a checklist and key to the species, Zootaxa 4937 (1), pp. 1-79 : 67-68

Cephalalna Boulard, 2006a

Cephalalna Boulard 2006a: 129 .

Type species.— Cephalalna francimontanum Boulard 2006a: 129 ( French Mountain , surroundings of Antsiranana, North Madagascar) .

Remarks.— Boulard (2006a) assigned the previously monospecific genus to the Chlorocystini Distant, 1905c . Marshall et al. (2018b) suggested that the genus and its placement in the Chlorocystini needed further study. The species of the genus lacks multiple diagnostic characteristics of Chlorocystini but rather possesses diagnostic characteristics of the Tettigomyiinae and Malagasiini . The genus cannot be classified within the Chlorocystini because it lacks the single apomorphy found in all members of the tribe, an S-shaped aedeagus in the male (Boer 1995). In addition the genus lacks the inflated or dilated male abdomen with a central longitudinal dorsal ridge, lacks claspers, and lacks a reduced or absent median uncus lobe that are characteristic of species in the tribe (Boer 1995; Moulds 2005). Cephalalna possesses partially fused fore wing cubitus posterior and anal vein 1, the fore wing cubitus anterior 1 division is proximally shorter, the fused bases of the hind wing radius posterior and median vein, the lack of timbal covers, the lack of S-shaped male opercula, the well developed pygofer distal shoulder, the lack of a pygofer upper lobe, a large, unretractable uncus that is not bent caudally, a mid lateral flange on the uncus, and the lack of claspers are all characteristic of the Tettigomyiinae ( Marshall et al. 2018b; Sanborn et al. 2020).

The genus is transferred here to the Malagasiini based on the close costal and radius & subcostal veins in the fore wing, the dorsal beak on the pygofer, the non-retractable uncus, the aedeagus being restrained by ventral apophyses of the uncus, the distally narrowing uncus and the lack of distal ornamentation of the aedeagus. These characters eliminate the other Tettigomyiinae tribes as a potential site for the transfer ( Marshall et al. 2018b).

Species of the genus are characterized by the head with a postclypeus that extends anteriorly forming a triangular extension, the postclypeus is inflated when viewed from the side, the supra-antennal plates form an extension lateral to the postclypeus base, the head is longer than the pronotum, the fore wing basal cell is five to six times as long as broad, hind wings have five apical cells, opercula are triangular, and the pygofer distal shoulder is hook-like (illustrated in Boulard 2006a). The only other genera that have an extended postclypeus are Rhinopsalta and Jafuna but those species can be distinguished by the postclypeus being laterally compressed with a finger-like extension in Rhinopsalta and the postclypeus is ventrally compressed in Jafuna with both exhibiting characters of the Cicadettinae rather than the Tettigomyiinae .

Distribution.—The genus is restricted to Madagascar ( Sanborn 2013).