Ledropsis White, 1844

Jones, Joshua R. & Deitz, Lewis L., 2009, Phylogeny and systematics of the leafhopper subfamily Ledrinae (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae) 2186, Zootaxa 2186 (1), pp. 1-120 : 48-49

Genus Ledropsis White

(Pl. 2F–G, H–I, 8C, 15G–H, 18I)

Ledropsis White, 1844: 425 .

Type species. L. cancroma White, 1844: 425 , by monotypy.

Synonymy. Scaphocephalus Matsumura, 1905: 52 (type species Petalocephala discolor Uhler, 1896: 290 ).

Description. Adapted from Evans (1966): The face of the head is concave and the labium, which is short and proximally, together with the prothoracic coxae, sunk below the level of the mesosternum, projects at right angles to the head. The maxillary plates overlap the anteclypeus antero-laterally and the slightly swollen lora slope inwardly. The antennae are situated on the posterior margins of deep lateral depression. The crown is convex with an obscure central ridge and is widest across the eyes. The eyes protrude beyond the margin of the head and the ocelli are closer to each other than to the eyes on each side. The pronotum is collar-like and raised posteriorly. The venation of the tegmen is distally reticulate. The tegmina of male insects are parallelsided; those of females are wider at the apex than at the base. The tibiae are flattened and parallel-sided; metathoracic tibiae somewhat foliaceous. Metathoracic tarsomere I long, setose.

Species. [19]: angularis Distant ; cancroma White ; crocina Distant ; discolor (Uhler) ; froggatti Distant ; koreana (Matsumura) ; lutescens Distant ; maculata Distant ; naso Walker ; obligens (Walker) ; producta (Melichar) ; punctulata (Melichar) ; quinquepunctata Bierman ; rubromaculata Laidlaw ; singalensis Distant ; takasagona Kato ; testacea Distant ; umbrata Cai & Kuoh ; wakabae Kato.

Range. Australia (New South Wales; Queensland: Burleigh, Landsborough); China (Fukien Province; Guizhou Province: Wongmo Co.; Hong Kong; Manchuria [Manchukuo]); East Malaysia (Sabah [British North Borneo]); India [Hindustan] (Bengal; Bihar; Chennai [Madras]; Kodagu [Coorg]; Orissa; Sikkim); Indonesia (Java; Sumatra); Japan (Honshu; Kamakora; Kyushu; Mt. Hukumi; Shikoku); Korea; Philippines (Palawan); Republic of Singapore [ Singapore Island]; Sri Lanka [ Ceylon]; Taiwan.

Host plants. Unknown.

Material examined. L. discolor : 1 male, Japan, USNM, JRJ _Led1_94 , 1 male, Japan, ASCU, JRJ _Led1_93 , 2 females, Japan, NCSU, JRJ _Led1_089–090; L. froggatti : 3 males, 3 females, Australia, USNM, JRJ _Led1_091–092, 095–098; Ledropsis sp. 1 : labeled as Confucius sp ., 2 males, Philippines, USNM, JRJ _Led1_038–039 .

Remarks. Ledropsis is among the larger genera of Ledrinae , with 18 described species. Like Petalocephala and Confucius , many of its species exhibit simplified morphologies—i.e, lacking projections or conspicuous textures on the crown, pronotum, and wings—whereas other members have such armature. Kato (1931) and Cai and He (1997) have described genera very similar to Ledropsis (see earlier discussions of Funkikonia and Kuohledra ) that possess a few slight differences.

It is probable that Ledropsis is polyphyletic and that some of its species belong in other genera. For example, the type species of Ledropsis , L. cancroma (not available for examination), is probably part of the Indomalayan fauna, while L. froggatti clearly belongs with the separate Australian fauna. Two other Ledropsis species in the analysis, L. discolor and one unidentified species of Ledropsis (incorrectly labeled as Confucius sp. ) were placed with Funkikonia and Ledra in the present analysis, both part of the Indomalayan fauna. Ledropsis appears to be primarily Indomalayan.

The species L. froggatti seems to be part of a group with E. primitiva and Porcorhinus ( Figs. 1–3 ), and should be removed from Ledropsis at some point. Its exact placement within the Australian fauna remains uncertain (see remarks for Ezrana above). L. crocina (only briefly examined—see remarks for Ezrana above) shares many similarities with L. froggatti and should probably also be removed. Though these removals considerably shrink the range of the genus (eliminating it from Australia), Ledropsis still has a wide distribution. It may be part of an older lineage from which the Australian clade is derived (nodes 27, 30, Fig. 3 ). A revision of the genus may answer this question, and is necessary to make any conclusions.

Distant (1908) believed Confucius was allied to Ledropsis , but differed in the crown not being longer than the breadth between the eyes. In the instance of Ledropsis discolor , this difference is void, as males have short angulate crowns, while females have long curved ones. Kato (1931: 436 —footnote) first pointed out the similarity between Distant’s definition for Confucius (vertex not longer than breadth between eyes, sinuate lateral margins) and the male of L. discolor , but concluded that the genera were different because in the female of L. discolor , the vertex is “distinctly longer than the breadth between [the] eyes.” However, sexual dimorphism seems to exist in some species of Confucius as well. C. cameroni males (Pl. 1C) strongly resembles L. discolor (Pl. 2F) males in the truncated and angulate shape of the crown (and, incidentally, in the overall color patterning and texture). Linnavuori (1972: 207 —see “Remarks” for Confucius ) may have solved the confusion by observing important and useful differences in the metathoracic tibia and metathoracic tarsomere I; he regarded Ledropsis and Confucius as separate genera; however, he did not examine the type species of Confucius . Representatives of the type species for both genera were also unavailable for this study, making final delineation here difficult.

In light of the absence of type material, the data from non-type material, and the probability that types will not be found, it seems useful to accept Linnavuori’s features of metathoracic tibia shape and metathoracic tarsomere I length as diagnostic for differentiating Ledropsis and Confucius . Based on Linnavuori’s concept of Confucius , then, some its members may need to be moved to Ledropsis , and some species of Ledropsis may need to be moved to Confucius or to other genera. At this point, Ledropsis seems to be primarily an Indomalayan genus, and Confucius primarily an African one, with some members extending across southern Asia into India and Sri Lanka.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Phylogram of relationships generated from cladistic analysis of entire dataset: {= [Ledrinae sensu Oman et al. (1990) dataset] + [dataset of non-ledrine taxa included to provide resolution to ingroup taxa anticipated to ultimately place outside of Ledrinae (marked in italic bold with an asterisk*)]}. Analysis in PAUP* was rooted to Bathysmatophorus shabliovskii, and resulted in a single most parsimonious tree with a cost of 1719 steps. Bremer support values are given above the branch to which they correspond. Squares, circles and triangles indicate tribal placements of included genera in Oman et al. (1990). The boundary of Ledrinae, as it is here recognized, is marked with a black star.

FIGURE 2. Phylogram of relationships generated from cladistic analysis of pruned dataset, including only species herein recognized to belong to the subfamily Ledrinae. Analysis in PAUP* was again rooted to B. shabliovskii; Aphrodes was included as putative sister group to the Ledrinae. This second analysis resulted in a single most parsimonious tree with a cost of 1185 steps. Bremer support values are given above the branch to which they correspond; the black star marks the phylogenetic boundary of Ledrinae. Ingroup resolution is topologically identical to that in Fig. 1, but branch lengths and Bremer supports vary.

FIGURE 3. Phylogram of summarized relationships among Ledrinae genera generated from a reduced dataset including single exemplars of each available genus. If available, the type species was chosen (marked with an asterisk*). Additional exemplars were included in cases where polyphyly among species was demonstrated in previous analyses, and where a male and a female of different species in the genus were needed to provided all of the pertinent characters (i. e., genitalia). Analysis (in PAUP*, rooted to B. shabliovskii, with Aphrodes included as putative sister group to the Ledrinae) resulted in five equally parsimonious trees (cost 933). The selected topology differs slightly from Fig. 2 in the placement of E. planata as sister to T. antica, in Titiella and Hangklipia not being placed as sister taxa, and in Jukaruka being placed with Platyledra instead of Ledropsella. Numbers at internodes correspond to a list of apomorphies generated from this analysis (see Table 1). Higher taxa within Ledrinae recognized herein, including new tribes (with their distributions), and informal genus and species groups, are indicated by symbols. The inclusion of Dusuna within the Petalocephala genus group is at present uncertain, as indicated by the question marks above the open triangles.