Laburrus pellax (Horváth, 1903), Horvath, 1903

Andrea Zanetta, David Frey, Marco Moretti & Valeria Trivellone, 2016, First records of Edwardsiana sociabilis (Ossiannilsson, 1936) and Laburrus pellax (Horváth, 1903) (Hemiptera, Auchenorrhyncha: Cicadellidae) in Switzerland, Mitteilungen der Schweizerischen Entomologischen Gesellschaft 89, pp. 281-287 : 284

Laburrus pellax (Horváth, 1903)

( Fig. 3 )

Material. 1. allotment « Moos »; N47° 19’ 45.156”, E8° 32’ 3.804” ( Fig. 2 ); 474 m; 20 July 2015; 1 ♀; pitfall trap in lawn. 2. allotment « Bachtobel 2»; N47° 21’ 32.292”, E8° 30’ 10.512” ( Fig. 2 ), 502 m; 3August 2015; 1 ♂; pitfall trap in vegetable bed.

Laburrus pellax has been recorded in central Europe, from Southern Russia to France. It is reported to be amonophagous species on Aster linosyris (Asteraceae) in Germany ( Nickel &Remane 2002) and in the South Moravian Region, Czech Republic ( Malenovský et al. 2011). The presence of L. pellax in an urban setting raises questions about its monophagy. Its host plant A. linosyris is rare in Switzerland and restricted to semiarid continental grassland or in dry meadows on the southern slopes of the Swiss Alps. Moreover, this plant species is only rarely cultivated in gardens. A. linosyris does not occur within the city of Zurich or in adjacent areas (Info Flora 2016) and was absent from all of the 85 gardens investigated (D. Frey, unpublished results). However, Aster spp. are very common garden plants, and were found in many of the 85 gardens in this study. This suggests that L. pellax may also feed on other species belonging to the genus Aster .For instance, in the botanical survey of the 85 study gardens, A. dumosus , A. novae-angliae , A. novibelgii were frequently cultivated (D. Frey, unpublished results). Furthermore, the urban heat island effect ( Pickett et al. 2011) may favor L. pellax ,which naturally occurs in xerothermic habitats.

Figures

Fig. 2. Geographic locations of the gardens in the city of Zurich where the leafhopper species new to Switzerland were sampled with bowl and pitfall traps during the BetterGardens invertebrate survey between May 18 th and August 19 th 2015. Each individual reported in the text is assigned to its respective sampling site.

Fig. 3. Laburrus pellax (Horváth, 1903). Photograph by Gernot Kunz.