Macrosteles brochus Zhang

Yalin, Zhang, Lin, Lu & Kwon, Yong Jung, 2013, Review of the Leafhopper Genus Macrosteles Fieber (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae: Deltocephalinae) from China, Zootaxa 3700 (3), pp. 361-392 : 367

Macrosteles brochus Zhang & Lu, sp. nov.

(Plate 13, figs. 1–9)

Length (including tegmen). Male: 3.2 mm; female: 3.5 mm.

General coloration yellow. Head with 2 pair of black marks. Anterior transverse spots flow into larger marks and short longitudinal black bands between ocelli and eyes. Forewing with slight brown tint.

Male abdomen. 2nd acrotergite with trunk horizontal, anterior processes broad, neck slender, longer than half of trunk width. 2nd tergal apodeme reaching over 1/2 of tergite posteriorly. 2nd sternal apodeme with posterior lobes developed, broad, about as long as basal width, not extending beyond sternum margin.

Male genitalia. Pygofer broad, with indistinct spinulose triangular tubercle on caudo-ventral margin; aedeagal shaft smooth, but with pair of protuberances dorsally subapically; apical appendages elongate, bent caudoventrally, exceeding 2/3 of shaft, twist.

Holotype: male, CHINA, Xinjiang Autonomous Region, Qinghe County, Qinghe Forest, 8.viii.2006, 1800m, Coll. Dai Wu and Kang Juxia (NWAFU).

Distribution. China (Xinjiang).

Remarks. This species is similar to M. striifrons based on the characters of the aedeagus, but can be differentiated from the latter by the aedeagal shaft having a pair of protuberances dorsally subapically, 2nd acrotergite with trunk horizontal and 2nd tergal apodeme not extending beyond tergite posteriorly.

Etymology. The specific epithet “ brochus ” refers to the pair of prominent teeth on the dorsum of the aedeagal shaft subapically.