Tardilly, Lambkin, 2019

Lambkin, Kevin J., 2019, Mesodiphthera Tillyard, 1919, from the Late Triassic of Queensland, the oldest cicada (Hemiptera: Cicadomorpha: Cicadoidea: Tettigarctidae), Zootaxa 4567 (2), pp. 358-366 : 362

publication ID

https://doi.org/ 10.11646/zootaxa.4567.2.8

publication LSID

lsid:zoobank.org:pub:524EF34B-9D7D-418E-9688-936D720806E1

DOI

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5931800

persistent identifier

https://treatment.plazi.org/id/4D7087C2-FFEF-FFF8-FF0B-FCE6FBBBF993

treatment provided by

Plazi

scientific name

Tardilly
status

gen. nov.

Tardilly View in CoL gen. nov.

Type species. Mesodiphthera prosboloides Tillyard, 1922

Diagnosis. Tegmen elongate (c. 3 times longer than wide), c. 15 mm long, apex (only preserved in type species) narrowly rounded; costal space, clavus and base of pre-nodal area coarsely punctate; costal space very broad, about three times as wide as CuA cell; nodal line well beyond ½ tegmen length; basal cell narrowed apically; primary R fork slightly proximal to that of M, about midway between apex of basal cell and nodal line; RP, M1+2 and M3+4 not noticeably angled at nodal line; RA1 very close to node; RA2 branching pattern not preserved; post-nodal cross-vein series closer to nodal line than tegmen apex (im and m-cu not preserved in type species), apical cells thus quite long; ir (preserved in type species only) upright; angle of primary M fork acute; both r-m and im backwardly inclined; im (preserved in dunstani only) between M2 and M3; M3+4 with three branches; CuA1 gently sinuous, directed towards apical margin, apparently about same length as M4; CuA1 cell very broad basally, strongly narrowed apically; CuA2 not sharply angled, diverging very gradually from nodal line, running to posterior margin, less than ½ as long as CuA1; clavus quite large, occupying a significant area of tegmen, extending beyond ½ tegmen length, claval veins well-developed.

Notes. The genus is similar to Mesodiphthera in the more or less aligned primary forks of R and M placed at about midway between the basal cell and the nodal line, and the fact that at least in M. dunstani , im is backwardly inclined and runs between M2 and M3. As noted above, these are two of the distinctive characters of Mesodiphthera . The genus is quite distinct, however, in its smaller size, broader costal space, three-branched M3+4, and differently shaped CuA and CuA2. The three-branched M3+4 is unusual for the family, M3+4 being always either simple or two branched, with the exception of the aberrant Elkinda , in which all post-nodal venation is polymerized ( Shcherbakov 1988, fig. 2i). The generic name is an anagram of the family name of its species author, Australian entomologist, Robin John Tillyard (1881–1937), and is masculine.

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Arthropoda

Class

Insecta

Order

Hemiptera

Family

Tettigarctidae

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