Pentastiridius Kirschbaum

Löcker, Birgit, Fletcher, Murray J., Larivière, Marie-Claude & Gurr, Geoff M., 2006, The Australian Pentastirini (Hemiptera: Fulgoromorpha: Cixiidae), Zootaxa 1290 (1290), pp. 1-138 : 99-100

Genus Pentastiridius Kirschbaum

Pentastiridius Kirschbaum, 1868: 45 .

Type species Flata pallens Germar, 1821 .

Morphology

Head: Vertex (total length) 1.0–1.3 times longer than wide; lateral carinae slightly elevated; subapical carina forking from lateral margin at 1/2–2/3 of total length of vertex; median carina 1/4–3/4 as long as median length of vertex. Position of maximum width of frons more or less around centre of frontoclypeal suture; lateral carinae of frons convex (evenly rounded or rectilinear apically). Anteclypeus with well­developed median carina.

Thorax: Forewing with fork ScRA+RP distad of fork CuA1+CuA2; r­m crossvein basad of fork MA+MP; RP apically bifid (rarely trifid); MA apically trifid; MP apically bifid; fork of Pcu+A1 more or less central within clavus. Hind leg: tibia with 3 (rarely 2) lateral spines; 6 large apical teeth; 1 st tarsomere with 12–16 apical teeth and 10–14 platellae; 2 nd tarsomere with 8–12 apical teeth and 6–10 platellae.

Male genitalia: Genital styles without long, sclerotised, spinelike, dorsal process.

Distribution Cosmopolitan genus, Australian distribution: Queensland, New South Wales.

Remarks

The structure of the aedeagus is very uniform within this cosmopolitan genus and descriptions of some species are based on minute differences in the length or curvature of spines on the phallotheca. Examination of the aedeagus of a large number of specimens of P. felis Kirkaldy revealed a certain degree of variability. A very slight bent in the curvature of spine (a) was noticed in some specimens; however, the degree and position of this bend varied, and it was therefore interpreted as intraspecific variation. The length of spines varied as well, but spine (a) was always the longest of the three spines. P. felis closely resembles species described from the Indo­Malayan region, such as P. pachyceps (Matsumura) and P. fuscoapicatus (Metcalf) and the African species P. sudanicus (Lallemand) . A revision of the genus Pentastiridius Kirschbaum on a world­wide scale is needed to investigate the degree of intraspecific variation and examine the validity of many species described in Pentastiridius .

This genus can be distinguished from all other Australian Pentastirini by the presence of platellae on the first and second hind tarsomere.