Plautillina Distant, 1905h

Sanborn, Allen F., 2020, The cicadas (Hemiptera: Cicadidae) of Ecuador including the description of five new species, a new subtribe, four new synonymies, and fifteen new records, Zootaxa 4880 (1), pp. 1-80 : 15

Subtribe Plautillina Distant, 1905h rev. stat.

Plautillaria Distant 1905h: 563 .

TYPE GENUS.— Plautilla Stål 1865: 155 .

REMARKS.—The type genus was not included in the recent family level genomic study ( Marshall et al. 2018) but several authors have suggested an affinity of Plautilla to Zammara , beginning with Stål (1865). Jacobi (1907a) also described the structural similarities of Plautilla and Zammara . Handlirsch (1925) placed the genus Plautilla near Zammara within the Cicadini Latreille, 1802 . The genus was classified within the Tibicininae Distant, 1905d in Metcalf (1963c) but separated in its own family by Boulard (1975). Moulds (2005) provided a detailed morphological cladistic analysis and demonstrated that the Plautillini formed a clade with the Zammarini . However, he was cautious about changing more than the position of the Plautillini from the Tibicininae to the Cicadinae choosing to await molecular studies to clarify the situation further ( Moulds 2005). Goemans (2016) performed these molecular analyses and proposed the Plautillini as a junior synonym of the Zammarini in a reference not recognized by the Code as making a valid change to its status. The genetic analyses showed that Plautilla and Onoralna Boulard, 1996 form a distinct clade from the species of the subtribe Zammarina and Dazina Kato, 1932 ( Goemans 2016) . As a result, I am forming the subtribe Plautillina rev. stat.

Species of the subtribe Plautillina rev. stat. are characterized by the small head with prominent antennae, posterior extensions on the metanotum that form the timbal covers in Plautilla but are reduced to a small extension over the anterior timbal cavity in Onoralna , fore wing ulnar cell 1 not as long as apical cell1 or 2, hind wing jugum very small, males possess large inflated opercula that extend laterally beyond the anterior abdomen, the abdomen is narrowed in segments 1 and 2 and expands to its widest at segment 3, and there is a well developed mesonotal stridulatory apparatus. Onoralna was originally assigned to the Dazini (Boulard 1996) and was moved along with other genera of the tribe to the subtribe Dazina when the subtribe was formed based on the primary structure used to distinguish Dazina from Zammarina , a curled ridge along the posterior timbal cavity margin ( Sanborn 2018a). However, the species of Onoralna possesses the complete set of characters of the Plautillina rev. stat. and is reassigned to the Plautillina rev. stat. here. This morphologically based assignment is supported by the molecular phylogenies of Goemans (2016).

GENERA INCLUDED.—The genera Plautilla Stål, 1865 and Onoralna Boulard, 1996 are assigned here to the subtribe.