Paratettigarcta, Kaulfuss, Uwe & Moulds, Max, 2015

Kaulfuss, Uwe & Moulds, Max, 2015, A new genus and species of tettigarctid cicada from the early Miocene of New Zealand: Paratettigarctazealandica (Hemiptera, Auchenorrhyncha, Tettigarctidae), ZooKeys 484, pp. 83-94 : 87

Taxon classification Animalia Hemiptera Tettigarctidae

Paratettigarcta gen. n.

Type species.

Paratettigarcta zealandica new species, designated herein (Figs 3, 4). No other species are currently included in the genus.

Diagnosis.

Paratettigarcta is most similar in hindwing venation to that of Eotettigarcta Zeuner, 1944 from the Paleocene of the United Kingdom ( Eotettigarcta is known only from a partial hindwing) but differs in its more parallel-sided subcostal cell (the most anterior of the distal cells) where RA lies parallel to Sc for most of its length rather than gradually diverging, and in the branching of vein M where M1 branches before M3 (after in Eotettigarcta ). There are also similarities in the forewing of Paratettigarcta with extant Tettigarcta from which Paratettigarcta differs in the early divergence of CuA2 from the nodal line in the forewing (late divergence in Tettigarcta ). The hindwing of Paratettigarcta is quite different from that of Tettigarcta , especially in the apical cells that are much longer than those of Tettigarcta , in particular the anterior most cell (subcostal cell) that is wide and extended far beyond crossvein r (narrow and only a little extended beyond r in Tettigarcta ). Further, Paratettigarcta has pigmented wing patterns not unlike those present in Eotettigarcta (and some other fossil Tettigarctidae ) but such patterns are absent in extant Tettigarcta .

Description.

Forewing veins R and M branched close to base of forewing so that ulnar cells u1-u3 and medial cell are long and narrow; vein CuA strongly bowed before branching. Nodal line clearly defined and departing the extremity of vein CuA2. Crossvein r-m nearly straight, steeply angled to RP and M1; m gently bowed, almost perpendicular to M2 and M3; m-cu strongly bowed, meeting M4 nearly perpendicularly and meeting CuA1 at a steep angle. Hindwing apical cells tending long and narrow, a1 almost as long as a2 so that crossvein r meets RA within its proximal quarter; Sc and RA wide apart, almost as wide as width of apical cell 1.

Etymology.

The genus name is a combination of para (Latin from Greek, meaning “near”) and the extant genus-group name Tettigarcta .