Paraorosius El-Sonbati & Wilson

El-Sonbati, S. A., Wilson, M. R. & Al Dhafer, H. M., 2016, Paraorosius, a new genus of leafhopper (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae: Deltocephalinae: Opsiini), with description of a new species from the Middle East, Zootaxa 4150 (5), pp. 581-590 : 582-583

Paraorosius El-Sonbati & Wilson gen. n.

Type species: Orosius minuicus Dlabola, 1979 .

Paraorosius can be recognized by following combination of characters:

Body length: 3.4 − 3.8 mm.

Coloration: Very similar to Orosius , generally yellow, unicolorous white, shiny, especially on the forewing on the veins in more or less distinct and always incomplete rows of spots forming a netlike pattern.

Head: Head as wide as pronotum; crown width more than 2 times width of eye, slightly produced, flat, narrowly rounded to face; face yellow; gena slightly incised with single fine erect seta near to lateral frontal suture and close to it; lateral frontal suture reaching ocellus and directed laterad of ocelli; frontoclypeus length subequal to or longer than width; clypeal suture arcuate and complete; clypellus width subequal to lorum at base, parallel-sided in basal two thirds, slightly produced beyond gena, slightly inflated with straight apical margin; lorum apex widely distant from gena margin, inner margin bordering postclypeus less than ⅓; antenna long, brown basally; antennal ledge weakly developed; antennal base near middle or posteroventral (lower) corner of eye; ocelli situated at anterior margin of head and a little distance to eye margin; mesal margin of eye entire.

Thorax: Pronotum yellowish brown in colour, anterior margin convex, posterior margin concave, and lateral margin slightly angled with scattered brownish spots.

Wings: Forewing veins not carinate, appendix restricted to anal margin, with A1 crossvein, R1 not confluent with costa (with 3 anteapical cells), A1 − A2 veins coalescing over part of their length. Hind wing submarginal vein complete.

Legs: Legs yellow and brown spotted; profemur row AM with AM1, one intercalary row with more than 5 fine setae, 2 dorsoapical setae, AV row with numerous stout setae, slightly long; protibia AD row with more than 4 macrosetae, AV row with numerous macrosetae; mesofemur AV row with short setae, highly reduced, with 2 dorsoapical seta; metafemur setal formula 2+2+1; metatibia sharply arched, PD row with long and short macrosetae, AD row with macrosetae, smaller intercalary setae, 3 intercalary setae between each pair of macrosetae, AV row with only numerous macrosetae extending nearly to base; metatarsomere I length subequal to tarsomeres II plus III combined; setal areolae absent on legs, pair of setae dorsoapically and slightly widening apically.

Male genitalia: Aedeagus with two branches arising from base, shafts separated throughout their length, with diverging branches bent inwards at mid-length, apices of branches distinctively curved or reflexed, without basal process; connective articulated with aedeagus; pygofer about 2x as long as tergite VIII, with side long, curved, apically long setulate, with well differentiated macrosetae into several rows; genital plate with one row of macrosetae near margin; style apophysis fingerlike, broadly bilobed basally, with well-developed anterior lobe, well developed preapical lobe, well developed subapical tooth; valve is free to pygofer, smoothly rounded triangular shape, articulation of valve with pygofer pointed.

Female genitalia: Ovipositor not extended beyond pygofer apex; first valvula not strongly convex; second valvula gradually tapered apically with shallowly tooth on the shaft; scattered macrosetae on pygofer.

Diagnosis. Paraorosius appears to be closely related to Orosius and Nesophrosyne and in order to distinguish these genera the male genitalia must be examined. Paraorosius , can be distinguished from the above genera by the aedeagal shafts diverging and bent inwards at mid-length with the apices of branches distinctively curved or reflexed to form prominent tips. The new genus also differs markedly from Nesophrosyne by the tip of aedeagal shafts lacking a hooked process. The two Paraorosius species are similar, but may be distinguished by characters given in the key below. The distribution of this genus is similar to that of the genus Orosius , especially with regard to O. albicinctus (Distant, 1918) , O. cellulosus (Lindberg, 1927) and O. orientalis (Matsumura, 1914) .

Etymology. The generic name is derived from the combination of the words "Para" and " Orosius " since it is considered closely related to Orosius . It is treated as a masculine noun.