Lamaxa gracilis ( Fennah, 1945 ) Bartlett & Kennedy, 2018

Bartlett, Charles R. & Kennedy, Ashley C., 2018, A review of New World Malaxa (Hemiptera: Fulgoroidea: Delphacidae), Zootaxa 4441 (3), pp. 511-528 : 519-520

Lamaxa gracilis ( Fennah, 1945) , New combination

= Malaxa gracilis Fennah, 1945: 430 .

( Figures 15–18 )

Type locality. Caracas , Venezuela.

Plant associations. None reported.

Distribution. Venezuela.

Remarks. This species was described from a single male that remains undissected ( Figs. 15–18 ). Fennah (1945: 431) stated that "[t]his species differs from occidentalis Muir in the shape of the genitalia, especially the penis", which he had earlier in the same page described as “[p]enis narrowly tubular basally, with a wide, pendent, laterally compressed semimembranous appendage, devoid of teeth, arising sub-apically and reflected anteriorly ventrad” (see Fennah 1945, figures 88–89 in contrast to Muir 1926, figure 6). The holotype is externally very similar to occidentalis . We suspect that gracilis and occidentalis may be the same species, with the difference cited by Fennah (1945) a result of the apex of the aedeagal process getting broken off; however, because we have only the holotype available, which is geographically segregated from the available specimens of occidentalis ( Fig. 43 ), we cannot determine with confidence whether the two taxa represent the same or different species.

Material examined. Holotype “Coll. No. 3009/ Holotype ♂ MALAXA / GRACILIS Fennah / Coll. J. G. Myers, Caracas, Venezuela Dec 6, 1930 // TypeNo 56682 / USNM ”

Females tentatively assigned to Lamaxa .

BRAZIL, Santa Caterina, Nova Teutonia, 25 Aug 1950, Fritz. Plaumann (1 female, NCSU). HONDURAS, Ocotepeque, 14 mi. NE Nueva Ocotepeque, 25-Jul-74, C & L O'Brien & Marshall (1 female, UDCC).

Figures

FIGURE 43. Distribution of New World species of Lamaxa and Xalama.

FIGURES 15–18. Lamaxa gracilis (holotype); 15, habitus, dorsal view; 16, habitus, lateral view; 17 frontal view; 18, labels.