Afromelampsalta mimica ( Distant, 1907a ) Sanborn & Villet, 2020

Sanborn, Allen F. & Villet, Martin H., 2020, Afromelampsalta, a new genus, a new species, and five new combinations of African cicadettine cicadas (Hemiptera: Cicadidae: Cicadettinae), Zootaxa 4731 (4), pp. 531-542 : 538-540

Afromelampsalta mimica ( Distant, 1907a) n. comb.

( Fig. 4 )

Pauropsalta mimica Distant, 1907a: 176–177 .

Pauropsalta mimica Ewart 1989: 293 .

Melampsalta sp. b Phillips, Sanborn & Villet 2002: 31.

Melampsalta sp. b Sanborn, Phillips & Villet 2003: 349, Table 1.

Pauropsalta mimica Moulds 2012: 176

Melampsalta sp. b Sanborn 2013: 530.

Pauropsalta mimica Sanborn 2013: 545

Remarks. Ewart (1989: 293) excluded this species from five species groups assigned to Pauropsalta Goding & Froggatt, 1904 , including one containing Cicada mneme Walker, 1850 , the orthotype of Pauropsalta ( Goding & Froggatt, 1904) . Moulds (2012) listed P. mimica under Pauropsalta . He did not assign it to another genus, but noted that it was part of a groups of species that appeared to be erroneously placed in Pauropsalta .

Exuvium. Material examined. “ SOUTH AFRICA E. Cape Prov. / Grahamstown / 33º 19.28 S 26º 30.47 E / 28 Dec 2001 / P. Phillips, coll.” one female ( AFSC) .

Description. Body 16 mm long, ochraceous with tawny posterior segment margin, narrow with curved posterior abdomen covered with long, sparse setae, denser on ventral surface and legs.

Head. Head slightly wider than long, about as wide as anterior pronotum. Antennae six segmented, scape very small, distal two segments extending beyond anterior postclypeus. Postclypeus inflated, bulbous, rostrum missing. Postclypeus, anteclypeus and posterior gena covered with dense, long setae, sparse setae on remaining head, long setae radiating on lateral eye.

Thorax. Dorsal pronotum about 2.5 mm, dorsal mesonotum about 3.5 mm, and dorsal metanotum about 0.6 mm in length on midline. Fore wing apex reaching to middle of abdominal tergite 2, hind wing almost reaching posterior of abdominal tergite 2. Setae sparse on tergites, ventrally restricted to posterolateral sternites.

Legs. Legs covered with setae. Fore femora with posterior tooth long, sharp, curved forward slightly; more than 3X as long as wide at base, with lobate accessory tooth. No diastema separating posterior tooth from single intermediate tooth. Fore femur comb with four teeth, apical tooth blade-like. Fore tibia blade well-developed, obtusely angulate in center, without apical point, single well-developed, pointed apical tooth. Fore tarsus two-segmented, apical tarsomere very elongated, pretarsal claws of unequal length. Middle tibia with three apical spines, middle spine longest, lateral spine intermediate in length, medial spine shortest and narrowest. Middle tarsus two-segment- ed, apical tarsomere elongated, pretarsal claws of unequal length (based on diameter of base as both broken in only leg present). Hind tibiae with three apical spines, middle spine longest, lateral spine intermediate in length, medial spine shortest and narrowest. Hind tarsus two-segmented, apical tarsomere elongated, pretarsal claws of unequal length (based on comparison between hind tarsi as one claw broken on each hind tarsus but medial and lateral claws are present in the two legs of the specimen).

Abdomen. Abdomen cylindrical, longer than head and thorax length combined. Segments one and two small producing a distinct waist, width expanding to segment five where begins to reduce width towards apex. Tergites with transverse row of setae near posterior margin, setae on lateral margin of tergites and denser on sternites.

Genitalia. Female gonapophyses VIII (valvifer 1) elongated, triangular, abutting along midline and curving dorsally towards apex, about as long as tergite 9. Gonapophyses IX (valvifer 2) extending laterally and posteriorly from under gonapophyses VIII. Sternites X and XI extending posterior to and bent ventrally over distal gonapophyses IX.

Remarks. The exuvia of this species can be easily distinguished from the previously described exuvia ( Villet 1989; Midgley et al. 2013) from South Africa by its smaller size, narrow body, lobate accessory tooth of the femur, reduced femoral teeth, and lack of diastema. The lobate accessory tooth is similar to those described in Magicicada septendecim ( Linnaeus, 1758) and the fossil Burmacicada protera Poinar and Kritsky, 2011 and Dominicada youngi Poinar and Kritsky, 2011 ( Poinar and Kritsky 2011).

Distribution. Upper Kowie River catchment, South Africa ( Fig. 3 ).

Notes on the biology of the species. The species was collected in the Savannah biome of the Eastern Thorn Bushveld (Low & Robelo 1996) and the Albany Coastal Belt vegetation type of the Albany Thicket Biome ( Mucina and Rutherford 2006). This species also called from grasses.

Figures

FIGURE 3. Distributions of (○) Afromelampsalta luteofasciata n. gen., n. sp. and (●) Afromelampsalta mimica n. comb. Roads and town are marked in grey.

FIGURE 4. Exuvium of female Afromelampsalta mimica n. comb.: A, lateral view; B, dorsal view; C, fore femur, tibia and tarsus; D, middle leg tibia and tarsus; E, hind tibia and tarsus; F, ventral view of genitalia. Abbreviations: acf—accessory tooth of femur, apt—apical tooth of tibia, bt—blade of tibia, f—femur, fc—femoral comb; itf—intermediate tooth of femur, ptf—posterior tooth of femur, t—trochanter, ti—tibia, ta—tarsus. Scale bar: A, 5 mm; B–D, 1 mm; E, 2 mm.