Philipsalta Lee, Marshall & Hill

Lee, Young June, Marshall, David C., Mohagan, Alma & Hill, Kathy B. R., 2016, Cicadas (Hemiptera: Cicadidae) from Camiguin of Mindanao Province and Dinagat Island in the Philippines, with a new genus and three new species, Zootaxa 4097 (2), pp. 187-202 : 197

Genus Philipsalta Lee, Marshall & Hill gen. nov.

Type species. Philipsalta nigrina Lee, Marshall & Hill sp. nov.

Description. Body tiny, about 13.5 mm long, monotonous in coloration. Head comparatively long, about as long as or longer than two-thirds the median length of pronotum. Head including eyes slightly wider than base of mesonotum. Postclypeus slightly swollen anteriad and rather flat ventrally. Pronotal collar very narrow, not dentate. Fore-femur with primary, secondary, and small subapical spine. Wings hyaline without infuscation. Forewing radial cell spacious, broader than ulnar cell 3. Forewing cubital cell spacious, about as broad as medial cell. Hind wing with six apical cells. Male operculum small, wider than long, not reaching posterior margin of sternite II. Abdomen triangular in dorsal view, slightly longer than head and thorax together. Tergite 1 very short, less than one-fourth as long as tergite 2 in median length. Timbal cover absent. Timbals not extending below wing bases ventrally. Pygofer ovate with triangular dorsal beak in ventral view. Upper lobe of pygofer present. Dorsal beak triangular. Median lobe of uncus very short. A pair of clasper-like processes protruding downward.

Etymology. The generic name is a feminine noun from the combination of Philippine and the Latin psalta, meaning “ Philippine musician”.

Remarks. This genus is peculiar among the genera of Cicadettini in having a very short tergite 1, and is distinguished from the other Philippine Cicadettini genus Ggomapsalta Lee, 2009 by the following characteristics: body dark-colored; forewing radial and cubital cells spacious and broad; hind wing with six apical cells; upper lobe of pygofer present; median lobe of uncus very short.

According to a molecular phylogenetic study by Marshall et al. (2015), this new genus forms a phylogenetic group together with Huechys and a few other European, North American, and Micronesian genera. The new genus is morphologically distinguished from Huechys sanguinea (Degeer, 1773) , the type species of Huechys (the only Asian genus among the phylogenetic group), and its congeners by the following characteristics: head including eyes slightly wider [slightly narrower in Huechys ] than base of mesonotum; postclypeus slightly swollen [distinctly swollen in Huechys ] anteriad; wings hyaline without infuscation [forewing dark-colored in Huechys ]; hind wing apical cell 1 normal-sized, about half the area of apical cell 2 [minimal, less than one-fourth the area of apical cell 2 in Huechys ]; male tergite 1 very short, less than one-fourth as long as tergite 2 in median length [broadly exposed, more than one-third as long as tergite 2 in median length in Huechys ]. Male genitalia is very similar to that of Huechys , but the median lobe of uncus is shorter.

This new genus is morphologically similar to Scolopita Chou & Lei, 1997 [type species: Scolopita mokanshanensis (Ouchi, 1938) ] but is distinguished by the following characteristics: body much smaller, with body length of 13–14 mm [body longer than 16 mm in Scolopita ]; body with monotonous [colorful in Scolopita ] coloration; head about as long as two-thirds [about half in Scolopita ] the median length of pronotum; wings comparatively small, with ratio of forewing length to body length of less than 1.2 [more than 1.3 in Scolopita ]; forewing costa slightly concave basally [never concave basally in Scolopita ]; anal cell 2 (vannus) more than three times [less than three times in Scolopita ] as long as wide; male operculum distinctly wider than long [longer than wide in Scolopita ]; male opercula apart from each other with gap of about one-fourth as wide as operculum [with gap of about half as wide as operculum in Scolopita ]; male tergite 1 less than one-fourth [more than one-fourth in Scolopita ] as long as tergite 2 in median length.