Branchana xanthota Li, 2011

Sanna, Francesco & Poggi, Francesco, 2022, First record of three alien Auchenorrhyncha species from Europe: Acanalonia bivittata (Say, 1825), Branchana xanthota Li, 2011, and Dryadomorpha pallida Kirkaldy 1906 (Hemiptera: Auchenorrhyncha: Acanaloniidae, Cicadellidae), Zootaxa 5194 (2), pp. 273-282 : 276

Branchana xanthota Li, 2011

Systematics and distribution. The leafhopper genus Branchana Li, 2011 belongs to the tribe Athysanini in the subfamily Deltocephalinae , with Branchana xanthota Li, 2011 as type species. Up to now the genus is monospecific.

B. xanthota is recorded from China ( Li et al. 2011; Chen et al. 2012) and Japan ( Kamitani, 2018). In China the species is reported from Guizhou, Hunan, and Sichuan Provinces ( Li et al. 2011; Chen et al. 2012), whose lowland areas are attributable to the Chinese Transitional Zone between the Palearctic and Oriental regions (Meregalli M., personal communication). In Japan it is reported from Honshu and Kyushu Islands. The species was collected by the second author in northern Italy (Lombardia region) in the summer of 2021.

Material examined. 22 ♂♂, 8 ♀♀, Italy, Lombardia, prov. Lecco, Maresso , 291 m, 45.689722, 9.355833, light trap, 5.VII.2021, F.Poggi leg. (20 ♂♂, 5 ♀♀ in CP; 3 ♂♂, 3 ♀♀ in CS) .

2 ♂♂, 5 ♀♀, Italy, Lombardia, prov. Lecco, Maresso , 263 m, 45.689722, 9.359167, from Phyllostachys aurea , 5.VII.2021, F.Poggi leg. ( CP) .

Morphology. Adult ( Fig. 2A ); body length of the specimens collected in Italy 5.3–5.5 mm in males and 5.8–6.1 mm in females; the body is entirely pale green in live specimens, immediately changing to pale yellow when dry; head almost as wide as pronotum, its anterior margin slightly and obtusely produced, ocelli located on anterior margin of vertex, long antennae; forewings with evident veins (yellow or orange in dry specimens) and with four apical cells.

Male genitalia; pygofer lobe with a short inner process in ventral margin near apex ( Figs 2B–C ); subgenital plates triangular with a row of macrosetae ( Fig. 2D ); style wide at base, slender and curved apically ( Fig. 2E ); aedeagus with two pairs of apical processes and subapical gonotreme ( Figs 2F–G ); connective Y-shaped ( Fig. 2F ).

A more detailed description is provided by Li et al. (2011).

Biology and host plants. B. xanthota is a bamboo-feeding leafhopper. In China it was reported from Qiongzhuea communis Hsueh & Hi and Phyllostachys edulis (Carrière) J.Houz. ( Chen et al. 2012), while in Japan from Phyllostachys edulis , Phyllostachys reticulata (Rupr.) , and Pleioblastus simonii (Carrière) ( Kamitani, 2018) . In northern Italy (Lombardia region) it was collected both by light trap and from Phyllostachys aurea Carrière (naturalized alien species), in woodland habitat in a hilly pre-alpine area; in both cases only adults were found. There are no published data on the life cycle of this species.

Remarks. The male genital characters of the specimens collected in Italy match with those of the Chinese specimens, according to the description and drawings by Li et al. (2011) and Chen et al. (2012).

This is not the case with the Japanese specimens which show some differences, according to the description and drawings by Kamitani (2018), reporting the four apical processes of the aedeagus clearly shorter and not sinuous (difference also noted by the Japanese author, only for the length of the upper pair) and the apexes of the anterior arms of connective convergent and contiguous apically (not convergent and not contiguous apically in Chinese and Italian specimens). For this reason, we cannot exclude the possibility that the Japanese specimens may belong to a different still undescribed Branchana species; further morphological and genetic studies would be advisable.

Figures

FIGURE 2. Branchana xanthota (male from Italy, Lombardia). A. dorsal habitus; B. apexes of pygofer lobes and inner processes; C. left pygofer lobe, lateral view; D. subgenital plates and valve, ventral view; E. left style, dorsal view; F. aedeagus and connective, ventral view; G. aedeagus and connective, lateral view.