Balocha tricolor Distant

VIRAKTAMATH, C. A. & YESHWANTH, H. M., 2024, Arboreal eurymeline leafhoppers (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae: Eurymelinae) of the Indian subcontinent with description of new genera and eight new species, Zootaxa 5462 (1), pp. 1-125 : 21

Balocha tricolor Distant

Figs 4F–J .

Balocha tricolor Distant 1908: 189–190 ; Maldonado-Capriles 1961301–302.

Remarks. No specimens of this species were examined except for the image of the male type in BMNH. This is a very beautifully colored species of Balocha found in Myanmar and may also occur in the Oriental region. Distant (1908) described this species based an on unspecified number of specimens (syntypes) with label data “Tenasserim; Myitta (Doherty)”. Maldonado-Capriles (1961: 302) mentions that Mr. W.E. China examined the type matraial and that they are all females. However, in the BMNH there are a series of specimens including one male with damaged male genital capsule ( Fig. 4H ) recognizable as male by the disc at the antennal tip. Maldonado-Capriles reproduced the description provided by Mr. W. E. China as follows “There is a bright vermillion stripe down the anal margin of the clavus and along the claval suture. Between these stripes, that is on the sutural half of the clavus is a clear pale yellow stripe. The costal half of the tegmen is bright translucent orange becoming paler towards the apex of the tegmen. Black apical spot of the tegmen is larger than in ( Balocha pallida n. sp. described below). The anterior half of the pronotum is bright vermillion and there is a vermillion crescent on the vertex”.

Figures

FIGURES 4A–J. Balocha astuta (Melichar) aedeagi of males from different places in India (A–E) and lectotype male, Balocha tricolor Distant (F–J). A, Bengaluru (a—anterior lobe; b—posterior process); B, New Delhi, JNU; C, Gujarat; D, Ludhiana; E, Pinjore. B. tricolor lectotype: F–G, habitus, dorsal and lateral views; H, ventral view of male abdomen showing damaged male genitalia; I, face; J, label data.