Hyalessa China , 1925

Puissant, Stéphane & Lee, Young June, 2016, Description of a new species of the genus Hyalessa China (Hemiptera: Cicadidae: Sonatini) from Yunnan, China, with a key to the species of Hyalessa and a calling song analysis for two Hyalessa species, Zootaxa 4114 (4), pp. 434-446 : 435

Genus Hyalessa China, 1925

Hyalessa China, 1925: 474 . Type species: Hyalessa ronshana China, 1925 ( Fig. 2 ).

Sonata Lee, 2010: 20 (synonymized by Hayashi, 2011). Type species: Oncotympana fuscata Distant, 1905 .

Diagnosis. See diagnosis of Sonata by Lee (2010) and that of Hyalessa by Wang et al. (2014).

Synonymy. Hyalessa ella ( Lei & Chou, 1997) syn. nov. is here synonymized with H. stratoria (Distant, 1905) because the external morphology and the male genitalia of H. ella (see Chou et al., 1997: 264) are identical with those of H. stratoria ( Fig. 1 ).

Included species. By adding the new species H. scutata sp. nov. to and removing H. ella from Hyalessa , the genus Hyalessa includes the following twelve species: H. fuscata (Distant, 1905) ( China, Far Eastern Russia, and Korea), H. maculaticollis ( De Motschulsky, 1866) ( Japan) , H. scutata sp. nov. ( China), H. wangi Wang et al., 2016 , H. virescens (Distant, 1905) ( China) , H. batangensis Wang et al., 2016 ( China) , H. ronshana China, 1925 ( China), H. melanoptera (Distant, 1904) ( India) , H. expansa (Walker, 1858) ( India and Nepal), H. stratoria (Distant, 1905) ( China and Nepal), H. obnubila (Distant, 1888) ( Bhutan, India, and Nepal), and H. mahoni (Distant, 1906) ( India) .

Independency of Hyalessa fuscata . Wang et al. (2014) treated H. fuscata as a junior synonym of H. maculaticollis . As Lee (1995, 1999, 2005) reiterated, however, H. fuscata is an independent species from H. maculaticollis , distinguished by its calling songs (see the section of "Comparison of calling songs between H. fuscata and H. maculaticollis " below) although they appear to be very similar in morphology except for the difference in body size and comparative sizes of male opercula and timbal covers. A detailed sound analysis is provided in the later part of the present paper to show the distinctiveness of the calling songs between the two species. For this specific case, it will be interesting to study the calling songs of these two species considering the fact that acoustic characters have been used extensively to reveal hidden taxonomic diversity in cicadas when morphological traits are missing or weak (e.g. Gogala & Trilar, 2004; Quartau & Simões, 2006; Sueur & Puissant, 2007; Puissant & Sueur, 2010; Marshall et al., 2011; Hertach et al., 2015).

Figures

FIGURE 1. Hyalessa stratoria (Distant, 1905), holotype, male pygofer, Yunnan, China. A, Ventral view. B, Lateral view. C, Dorsal habitus.

FIGURE 2. Hyalessa ronshana China, 1925. Dorsal habitus of a female.