Platyretus Melichar

Dai, Wu & Zhang, Yalin, 2008, A review of the Oriental grassland leafhopper genus Platyretus Melichar (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae: Deltocephalinae), Zootaxa 1696, pp. 37-47 : 38

Platyretus Melichar

Platyretus Melichar 1903: 174 . Type species: Platyretus marginatus Melichar , by original designation.

Medium sized leafhoppers measuring 6.0–7.0 mm long. Chocolate brown dorsally with yellow spots on dorsum of head and thorax, costal margin yellow in basal 0.75 interrupted in the middle by chocolate brown. Face, thoracic sterna, abdomen and legs yellow.

Head narrower than pronotum, vertex broadly produced in front, 0.77-0.84 as long as width between eyes, disc transversely depressed, acutely angled at transition from vertex to face, surface very finely rugulose, ecdysial line visible in basal half. Face shagreen, antennal pits shallow, slightly transgressing margins of frontoclypeus, lateral frontal sutures reaching middle of ocelli. Clypellus with concave lateral margin, slightly wider at apex than at base, lorum not reaching genal margin. Antennae at most half as long as body. Labium exceeding fore coxae. Eyes moderately large overlying antero-lateral angles of pronotum. Ocelli large, away from adjacent eye by distance less than half diameter of ocellus. Pronotum with lateral margin carinate, divergent posteriorly, disc transversely rugose and punctate. Scutellum either as long as or longer than median length of pronotum, surface anterior to transverse sulcus shagreen, posterior to it rugose. Forewing exceeding abdomen, with wide appendix, three subapical and four apical cells, outer subapical cell triangular, small, both outer and inner apical cells triangular, two reflexed veins arising from outer subapical cell reaching costal margin. Fore tibial spinal formula 1+4; hind tibia spinal formula R1 21±1, R2 12±1, R3 19. Hind basitarsus with plantar surface having two rows of spines, outer row with five smaller setae, inner row with four longer setae.

Male pygophore produced into narrow caudally directed lobe with dorsal marginal macrosetae. Anal segments elongate, well sclerotized. Subgenital plate rounded with row of long stout lateral setae, often becoming more submarginal distally; some short fine setae on lateral margin distally. Style linear with or without developed subapical lobe, apical apophysis either slender or stouter with prominent macrosetae, basal arms short. Connective U-shaped. Aedeagus with shaft simple and robust, with large gonopore apically on ventral surface, dorsal apodeme well developed plate-like, socle with ventral corner slightly produced. Female seventh sternum divided into three lobes, the median lobe very small some times withdrawn within sixth segment.

Remarks: The species of Platyretus are externally very similar in shape, size and coloration. The head is rather spatulate with a strong transverse depression across the eyes on the vertex, which is medially produced. The pronotum is as wide as or wider than head, longer than head and subequal to the scutellum. The forewing has two reflexed veins arising from the outer and median subapical cells. The female pregenital sternite has a medial posterior flap-like lobe, sometimes completely hidden beneath the sixth sternite. Species can only be distinguished by differences in the male genitalia as noted in the following key. Members of the genus are often confused with the species of Scaphoideus Uhler but can be easily distinguished by the absence of paraphyses from the connective in the male, so characteristic of the latter genus. Tribal placement of Platyretus is uncertain. The genus may belong in Scaphoideini but that tribe is poorly defined at present and some traits of the included genera overlap with those of Scaphytopiini and several unplaced deltocephaline genera including Mohunia and Scaphotettix .