Taphurini Distant, 1905e

Sanborn, Allen F., 2024, The cicada (Hemiptera: Cicadidae) fauna of the Lesser Antilles sensu lato with the description of two new species, two new combinations, and a key to species, Zootaxa 5497 (1), pp. 33-69 : 50

Tribe Taphurini Distant, 1905e

Taphuraria Distant 1905e: 25.

Type genus. Cicada (Taphura) Stål 1862: 20 .

Remarks. The tribe has been a repository for small species of uncertain classification historically as illustrated by the distribution of genera previously assigned to the Taphurini being reassigned recently to seven tribes in four subfamilies ( Marshall et al. 2018). The reassignment of all the genera previously assigned to the Tryellina Moulds, 2005 to the Lamotialnini Boulard, 1976 ( Marshall et al. 2018) and the Anopercalnina Boulard, 2008 to the Tettigomyiinae Distant, 1905c left only Neotropical genera in the tribe ( Sanborn 2021). Eight of the nine genera currently assigned to the tribe are monospecific with only Taphura containing multiple species.

Diagnosis. Members of the tribe are characterized by a head that is wider than the maximum width of the pronotum, a subquadrate pronotum not distinctly narrowed anteriorly, pronotal lateral margins that are not developed or dilated, male opercula that curve towards the abdominal midline but remain widely separated medially, opercula that are small, narrow, and do not cover the tympanal cavity, the abdomen length is about as long as the distance between the apex of the postclypeus and the posterior cruciform elevation, timbals do not extend ventral to the wing bases, the uncus is absent but the anal tube may possess lateral lobes, the upper pygofer lobes are small and unsclerotized, and the basal lobes of the pygofer are large and ornamented, especially in Taphura ( Moulds 2005; Sanborn 2017a; Marshall et al. 2018).