Malaxa Melichar, 1914 : 275

Bartlett, Charles R. & Kennedy, Ashley C., 2018, A review of New World Malaxa (Hemiptera: Fulgoroidea: Delphacidae), Zootaxa 4441 (3), pp. 511-528 : 514

Genus Malaxa Melichar, 1914: 275

Type species. Malaxa acutipennis Melichar, 1914 .

Malaxa Melichar 1914: 275 ; Muir 1926: 7; Metcalf 1943: 103; Fennah 1945: 429; Yang & Yang 1986: 56; Ding et al. 1999: 443; Chen et al. 2006: 160; Ding 2006: 150; Bartlett 2009: 387; Hou et al. 2013: 864.

Diagnosis. Description from Hou et al. (2013: 286–287, with comments in square brackets) “Body slender and elongate, length (from apex of vertex [~coryphe] to tip of tegmina): male 3.7–4.8 mm, female 4.3–5.1 mm, often with blackish brown markings. Head with eyes narrower than pronotum. Vertex longer or slightly shorter in middle than broad at base (0.95–1.24: 1), apex projected in front of eyes. Submedian carinae uniting before apex, greatest length of basal compartment shorter than wide at base of vertex (0.48–0.81: 1). Frons [~metope] relatively long, longer in middle line than wide at widest part (about 2.73–3.00: 1), widest at middle or apex. Rostrum reaching mesothoracic trochanters. Antennae cylindrical, very long, surpassing apex of clypeus, basal segment longer in middle than wide at apex (3.67–5.22: 1), shorter than frons in middle line (0.49–0.74: 1), shorter than second segment (0.40–0.56: 1). Pronotum shorter than vertex in middle line (0.58–0.96: 1), lateral carinae attaining hind margin. Mesonotum longer in middle line than vertex and pronotum together (1.33–2.05: 1). Tegmina elongate, longer in middle line than wide at widest part (1.76–3.16: 1), much longer than abdomen, hyaline, cross vein deposited medially, apical margin acutely rounded. Spinal formula of hind tibia 5-6-4. Post-tibial spur large and thick, concave on inner surface, without teeth along the hind margin, with an apical tooth. Anal segment of male short, ring-like, left lateroapical angle produced into process. Pygofer with two broad lamellate medioventral processes, between of them with a V-like emargination. Genital styles broad in basal half, forked or with process at apex. Aedeagus with or without phallobase, phallus tubular, curved C-like and directed segmental venter.”

Etymology. Melichar (1914) provided no indication of the derivation of the genus name Malaxa . Its derivation could be from a geographical locality (e.g., the village or landform on Crete), from a surname (e.g., of the Romanian engineer Nicolae Malaxa ), from an arbitrary combination of letters or from some other source; but none of those can obviously be recommended as the derivation of the name. We suggest that Malaxa be treated as an arbitrary combination of letters that is feminine in gender because of past usage and the name termination (- a).