Balclutha parapunctata, Lu, Lin, Zhang, Yalin & Webb, M. D., 2013

Lu, Lin, Zhang, Yalin & Webb, M. D., 2013, Review of the Grass Feeding Leafhopper Genus Balclutha Kirkaldy (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae: Deltocephalinae) in China, Zootaxa 3691 (5), pp. 501-537 : 518-520

Balclutha parapunctata sp. nov.

( Fig. 14 ; Plate 1, J)

Description. Length (including tegmen). Male: 3.6–4.0 mm; female: 4.0– 4.2 mm.

Greenish yellow, head and thorax with tinged ultramarine marks; pronotum with five longitudinal orange bands; forewings semi-transparent, slight orange brown, clavus orange, sometimes veins in wing base orange. Head narrower than pronotum, vertex round angularly produced, longer in midlength than next to eyes; pronotum broad, lateral margin long; ocelli 1.5 times own diameter from corresponding eyes; hind femur setal formula: 2.2.1.

Male genitalia. Pygophore acutely rounded posteriorly with some plumose macrosetae, posterior margin truncate, posterventral margin produced as acute, lightly sclerotised projection. Valve triangular, apical margin slightly straight. Subgenital plates long-triangular, apex with fingerlike process short. Style with apical apophysis curved laterally; preapical lobe developed, rectangular. Connective with stem slightly longer than arms, apex broadened and slightly emarginate. Aedeagus with base apodeme expanded, trumpet-shaped in lateral view; shaft slender, curved dorsad directed, gonopore apical.

Material examined. HOLOTYPE: male, China, Hainan Prov., Qiongzhong County, 5.vi.1983, Coll. Zhang Yalin; PARATYPES: China: 2 males, 1 female, Guangdong Prov., Mt. Dinghu, 18–19.vi.1983; 1 male, 1 female, Guangxi Autonomous Region, Fangcheng County, 2.xii.2001, Coll. He Zhiqiang; 3 male, 1 female, same as holotype; 3 males, Hainan Prov., Liangyuan County, 1.vi.1983, Coll. Zhang Yalin (NWAFU).

Distribution. China (Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan).

Remarks.: This species is similar to B. punctata but differs from the latter by the five longitudinal orange bands on the pronotum; basal apodeme of aedeagus expanded, but not tapering to apex, and aedeagal shaft longer and slightly straighter at middle.

Etymology. “ Para ” means “similar” or “by the side of”; since this species is very similar to “ B. punctata ”, we have named it parapunctata .

Figures

FIGURE 14. Balclutha parapunctata Lu & Zhang, sp. nov. A. head and thorax, dorsal view; B. pygophore, lateral view; C. valvae, subgenital plate, style, connective, ventral view; D. aedeagus, lateral view.