Leofa (Prasutagus) Distant

Duan, Yani & Zhang, Yalin, 2009, Review of the grassland leafhopper subgenus Leofa (Prasutagus) Distant (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae: Deltocephalinae: Chiasmini), Zootaxa 1972, pp. 35-43 : 35-36

Leofa (Prasutagus) Distant

Prasutagus Distant, 1918: 53. Type species: Prasutagus pulchellus Distant.

Oneratulus Vilbaste, 1975: 233–244. Type species: Jassus ? curtulus Motschulsky. Implicit synonymy by Zahniser, 2008: 31. Leofa (Prasutagus), Zahniser, 2008: 16 .

Description. Ochraceous with face dark brown; forewing veins white to translucent, usually bordered with brown, clavus with distinct white stripe. Head with eyes as wide as pronotum or slightly wider and distinctly longer than pronotum. Face with frontoclypeus somewhat longer than wide; anteclypeus narrowed slightly apically. Ocelli small, less than their own diameter from eye. Forewings submacropterous, truncate; appendix absent; tip of wing reaching to apex of abdominal tergite VI to exceeding tergite VIII; outer anteapical cell very small and constricted or completely absent. Hindwings completely reduced.

Male genitalia. Pygofer without membranous cleft; caudal lobes with dorsal margin abruptly narrowed near base of anal tube and obliquely sloping posteriorly, two lobe-like areas thus formed with internal sclerotised area and few long macrosetae; large inner appendage arising from base of upper lobe and extending to apex of pygofer. Valve triangular. Subgenital plate triangular with slightly obliquely truncate apex and undulated lateral margin; few irregularly arranged macrosetae apically. Style relatively narrow; apical apophysis curved laterally and tapered to acute apex, foot-like, in dorsal view; lateral lobe weakly to well developed. Connective Y-shaped with stem very short. Aedeagus with shaft cylindrical to laterally compressed, with one or more processes and dorsolateral flange basally, gonopore apical; basal apodeme very short. Elongate, recurved unpaired process articulated between aedeagus and connective.

Female genitalia. Pygofer almost as long as rest of abdomen. Hind margin of VII sternite somewhat protruded in middle. Ovipositor projecting well beyond tip of pygofer.

Distribution. Sri Lanka, India, China and Spain.

Remarks. Members of the subgenus Leofa (Prasutagus) are distinguished by the slightly shortened forewings (submacropterous) with a white stripe on the clavus ( Figs. 1J , 4A, 4B ) and the pygofer side with a large inner appendage arising from the base of the upper lobe that extends to the apex of the pygofer ( Figs. 1C , 3A , 4E ). Viraktamath & Viraktamath (1992) treated the subgenus as a distinct genus based on its pygofer processes etc, but here we follow Zahniser (2008) who placed it as a subgenus.

Figures

FIGURE 1. A – J, Leofa (Prasutagus) species. A – H, Leofa (Prasutagus) pulchellus Distant (A – G, India H, China), A: head and thorax; B: face; C: male pygofer, lateral view; D: subgenital plate, style and connective, dorsal view; E: aedeagus and paraphysis dorsal view; F: aedeagus and paraphysis, left lateral view; G: aedeagus ventral view; H: apex of left pygofer process; I – J: Leofa (Prasutagus) curtulus (Motschulsky), I, aedeagus, left lateral view (type male, Jassus? curtulus Motschulsky, from Vilbaste, 1975); J, dorsal habitus (syntype male Deltocephalus oneratus Melichar, from Distant, 1908).

FIGURE 4. A, B. Leofa (Prasutagus) yangae Duan and Zhang sp. n. A: dorsal habitus (♂); B: dorsal habitus (Ψ).

FIGURE 3. A – H, Leofa (Prasutagus) forcipatus Duan and Zhang sp. n. A: pygofer, lateral view; B: apex of pygofer appendage, lateral view; C: valve and subgenital plate, ventral view; D: style, dorsal view; E: aedeagus, paraphysis and connective, lateral view; F: aedeagus, posterior view; G: connective, dorsal view; H: female genitalia.