Chrysocicada Boulard, 1989

Moulds, Max & Marshall, David C., 2022, New genera and new species of Western Australian cicadas (Hemiptera: Cicadidae), Zootaxa 5174 (5), pp. 451-507 : 462

Chrysocicada Boulard, 1989

Boulard (1989, 1990) described the genus Chrysocicada for the single species franceaustralae Boulard, 1989 , a description that was later enhanced by Moulds (2012). We here slightly broaden the concept of Chrysocicada to include the new species described below as C. trophis sp. n.

Chrysocicada trophis sp. n. differs from C. franceaustralae in having a head that is narrower than the mesonotum instead of about equal, 5 hindwing apical cells instead of 6, and tergites 2 and 3 just a little wider along midline than any of tergites 4–7 instead of being about equal. These are not reliable characters for justifying generic separation as they are sometimes variable within genera. One further attribute needs comment: vein CuA 1 is divided by crossvein m-cu so that the proximal section is longest in C. trophis , an uncommon attribute in the subfamily Cicadettinae , but this feature is variable in C. franceaustralae from being either shorter, longer or about equal to the distal section. Thus, we modify the generic definition of Chrysocicada to incorporate this variability.

Chrysocicada is distinguished from all other genera in having, in combination, forewing veins M and CuA unfused at the basal cell, the male genitalia in having claspers and having the ventral rib of the basal plate attached only at its extremities, and lacking a dorsal beak, an uncus, and pseudoparameres.

A molecular phylogeny by Marshall et al. (2016: fig. 2) places Chrysocicada trophis sp. n. (represented in their tree by ‘ Chrysocicada nr. franceaustralae ’) in a clade that is sister to Pictila occidentalis ( Goding & Froggatt, 1904) , Pictila being the type-genus of the tribe Pictilini Moulds & Hill, 2018 . The tribe currently contains only Pictila and Chrysocicada ( Marshall et al. 2018) .