Destinia Nast, 1952

Jones, Joshua R. & Deitz, Lewis L., 2009, Phylogeny and systematics of the leafhopper subfamily Ledrinae (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae) 2186, Zootaxa 2186 (1), pp. 1-120 : 37-38

Genus Destinia Nast

Destinia Nast, 1952: 35 .

Type species. D. maja Nast, 1952: 36 , pl. V, figs. 7–9, pl. VI, figs. 10–15; by original designation.

Synonymy. None.

Description. Nast (1952): “Head shorter than breadth between the eyes; general shape of it not parabolic; its margin before the eyes with a distinct angle, thus the anterior part of the margin, when prolonged backwards, runs far outside the eyes. Ocelli nearer to each other than to the eyes. Pronotum broad, in the middle longer than head; its anterior border straight, slightly diverging backwards; posterior border deeply sinuate. Scutellum as long as pronotum ( D. maja sp. n.) or somewhat longer ( D. producta sp. n.). Forewings 3 times longer than broad, apex rounded; venation simpler than in Petalocephala Stål , in the apical part there is no reticulation; only the space between costal margin and radius as well as the basal part of the clavus are punctured. Hind wings vitreous. Metathoracic tibia not flattened, with 5 spines. Pygofer provided with a horizontal process on its upper hind angle; parameres thick, bent downwards.”

Species. [2]: maja Nast ; producta Nast.

Range. Indonesia (Sumatra: Soekaranda).

Host plants. Unknown.

Material examined. None.

Remarks. Specimens of Destinia , including the type specimen for D. maja , were unavailable for this study. Nast stated that his types were in the Polish Museum of Zoology, but requests to collections managers at the ZMPA were unreturned.

Nast (1952) stated that Destinia differs from Petalocephala “in form of the head and in venation of the forewings,” and in his description of Destinia , he stated that the head is angulate instead of parabolic, that it is shorter than the distance between the eyes, and that the wings have “simpler” venation. Vertex length and shape and degree of wing reticulation alone, however, are of dubious diagnostic utility in the Ledrini , as the former appear to be sexually determined in many species, a difference Nast himself (1952: 33) earlier points out, and species-level variation of venation in forewings of Petalocephala is uncertain.

Nast (1952) described and illustrated the male of the type species of Petalocephala , P. bohemani (Stål) . In his illustrations, the head is slightly longer than the pronotum and is parabolic, in the latter feature appearing much like the female (females examined in this study had the head parabolic and approximately 1.5 times longer than the pronotum—Pl. 3A). Other ledrine genera having heads shorter than the pronotum ( Parapetalocephala Kato, 1931 ) and not parabolic ( Midoria Kato, 1931 ; Funkikonia Kato 1931 ) were described previously, and some have been described since ( Arenoledra Kuoh , Latycephala McKamey ). It may be that these genera are all unique from Petalocephala and Destinia , but several of them have not been wellcharacterized.

Regarding wing venation, the range of expression of reticulation in forewings of Petalocephala species is not presently clear— P. bohemani appears to have very reticulate wing venation, but it is not certain this is the case for all species in the genus. In Nast’s illustrations of Destinia forewings, venation is mostly regular, but there are several extra cross veins apically.

Comparisons of the genitalia of the Destinia species to P. bohemani show many similarities and a similar basic overall structure (aedeagus intermediate in width at base with apical and subapical processes, styles broad with apices pointed ventrad, plates dorsoventrally flattened basally and laterally compressed apically). But some features may be unique to Destinia in their particular combination, in addition to the head shape and wing venation characters; they include the scutellum + post-scutellum being as long as or nearly as long as the pronotum, the presence of the ventrodistal lobe on the anal tube, the shape of the styles, which appears to be short and relatively thick distally posterad of the point of attachment with the connective, the basidistal processes of the pygofer being absent, and a pair of dorsoapical lobes of the pygofer being present (it is not clear from Nast’s drawings if these are the same structures as the inner, subapical, dorsomedial processes seen in other genera).

Examination of the type specimens of Destinia and comparison to many Petalocephala species would contribute greatly to confirming the validity of Destinia as an independent genus and determining the phylogenetic position of its species within Ledrini .