Thapaia Dmitriev & Dietrich, 2006

Cao, Yanghui, Dmitriev, Dmitry A., Dietrich, Christopher H. & Zhang, Yalin, 2019, New taxa and new records of Erythroneurini from China (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae: Typhlocybinae), Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae (Acta. Ent. Mus. Natl. Pragae) 59 (1), pp. 189-210 : 196-197

Thapaia Dmitriev & Dietrich, 2006

Masaakia Thapa, 1989: 120 ; preoccupied by Masaakia Takeuchi, 1950 ( Hymenoptera : Tenthredinidae ).

Thapaia Dmitriev & Dietrich, 2006: 37 (new name for Masaakia Thapa, 1989 ). SONG & LI (2009): 62 (redescription).

Type species. Masaakia nema Thapa, 1989 , by original designation.

Amended description. Generic characteristics as in THAPA (1989) and SONG & LI (2009), with the following characters newly added or slightly different from former publications. Body shape resembling Diomma Motschulsky, 1863 , flattened. Color pattern mottled, with numerous black spots, brown and grey areas. Pronotum with differently sized black patches along fore margin, inner pair largest, central and hind regions dark with midline and two areas on hind margin smoky. Forewing with special venation for Erythroneurini , CuA’ fused with MP proximal of MP bifurcation, leading to petiolate shape of second apical cell, MP’’+CuA’ curved basally, AA fused with AP. Hind wing venation usual for Erythroneurini, RA absent.

Male terminalia. Anal tube well sclerotized on distal region and near ventral side, hind and lower edges covered with acicular denticulations, without appendage. Pygofer dorsal appendage lamellate, immovably fused to pygofer lobe. Subgenital plate flattened, surpassing hind margin of pygofer side, apex pointed and hooked outwards, with about 4 macrosetae along outer margin and continued with several enlarged microsetae to apex, with row of setae from middle to apex on lateral margin, basal setae distinctly longer than apical ones. Aedeagus with dorsal apodeme large in lateral view, but narrow in ventral view; preatrium short to long, with or without processes.

Remarks. In the original description of the genus ( THAPA 1989), the pygofer side was described as having “only a small process at hind margin”, but the pygofer dorsal appendage was not mentioned. SONG & LI (2009) described the genus as having the “pygofer without dorsal or ventral appendages”. However, both description and drawings of T. sikkimensis ( Dworakowska, 1994) illustrated the pygofer with a dorsal appendage ( DWORAKOWSKA 1994). For both species examined in this study, we found that the pygofer dorsal appendage is in fact present but immovably fused to the lobe at both basal and ventral margins, thus, it can easily be confused as part of the lobe itself. Therefore, in all known species, except for T. sikkimensis , the small process on the dorso-caudal angle of the pygofer is probably the apical hook of the pygofer dorsal appendage.

Diversity and distribution. Currently including six species distributed in the Oriental and eastern Palaearctic Regions: China (Henan, Guizhou, Sichuan, Tibet) ( SONG & LI 2009), India ( DWORAKOWSKA 1994), and Nepal ( THAPA 1989).