Oliarus phelia (Kirkaldy)

Löcker, Birgit, Fletcher, Murray J., Larivière, Marie-Claude & Gurr, Geoff M., 2006, The Australian Pentastirini (Hemiptera: Fulgoromorpha: Cixiidae), Zootaxa 1290 (1290), pp. 1-138 : 44-45

Oliarus phelia (Kirkaldy) , nom. dub.

( Figs 12F–H)

Oliarus phelia Kirkaldy, 1906: 400 .

Type material

Syntypes, AUSTRALIA, Qld: 2 ♀ (examined), Kuranda , viii.1904 ( BPBM) ; 1 ♀ (examined), Nelson , vii.1904 ( BPBM) .

Colour

Head light brown or mid brown with light brown carinae; pronotum light brown; mesonotum mid brown, paler between lateral and sublateral carinae; legs light brown; forewing hyaline colourless with brown marks along crossveins, veins light brown, apically darker, tubercles indistinct, concolorous with veins, pterostigma mid brown; abdominal sternites mid brown..

Morphology

Body length: ♀ 6.2–6.3 mm.

Head: Vertex (total length) 1.5–1.7 times longer than wide; basal emargination obtusely angled. Postclypeus with well­developed median carina. Rostrum not reaching hind coxae.

Thorax: Hind margin of pronotum obtusely angled. Mesonotum with evanescent or well­developed carinae. Forewing 3.1 times longer than wide; costa without tubercles; 8 apical cells.

Male genitalia: Unknown (only known specimens are females).

Remarks

The narrow vertex and the presence of 2 lateral spines on the hind tibia verify the placement within the genus Oliarus sensu Emeljanov. The apical chaetotaxy on the hind leg (7 on tibia, 8–9 on 1 st tarsomere and 5–6 on 2 nd tarsomere), however, is uncommon within this genus.

Examination of the type series (3 females) of O. phelia showed that two females key to O. phelia in the identification keys provided by Kirkaldy (1906, 1907), whereas one female keys to O. kampaspe , based on the character “axillary vein of clavus running into anal vein basal of the middle of the latter.” The original descriptions do not give any characters that allow those species to be distinguished. All the characters coded for our study show identical character states for both species. Moreover, 7 large apical teeth were recorded on the specimens of O. phelia and on one leg of the only specimen of O. kampaspe (all other Australian Pentastirini have 5–6 large apical teeth on the hind tibia). A chaetotaxy of 8 (rarely 9) apical teeth on the 1 st tarsomere is also unusual within the genus Oliarus . The syntype of O. kampaspe was collected at the same collecting event as two specimens of O. phelia . All this suggests that these specimens belong to one species. However, in the absence of male genitalia to confirm these assumptions, both species are regarded as nomina dubia.