Watanabella Vilbaste, 1969

Zhang, Lan & Xing, Jichun, 2020, Description of a new leafhopper species of the genus Watanabella (Hemiptera Cicadellidae, Deltocephalinae) from China, Zootaxa 4808 (3), pp. 539-546 : 540

Genus Watanabella Vilbaste, 1969

Watanabella Vilbaste, 1969: 10 Type species: Thamnotettix montivaga Baker, 1924 (nom. nov. pro Thamnotettix montanus Matsumura, 1914:182 , nec T. montanus Van Duzee, 1892: 268 ).

Paramacrosteles Dai, Li & Chen, 2006: 592 syn. nov. Type species: Paramacrosteles nigromaculatus Dai, Li & Chen, 2006 .

Type species: Thamnotettix montivaga Baker, 1924 .

Description. Body yellowish-brown with black markings anteriorly and ventrally. Eyes black, ocelli dark brown. Pronotum with anterior yellowish-brown and posterior brown, with or without black markings anteriorly. Forewing yellowish. Face ocherous-yellow, with or without symmetrical black markings. Legs yellowish-brown.

Head including eyes slightly narrower or wider than pronotum. Vertex shorter than pronotum, longer medially than next to eye, anterior margin bluntly angulate in dorsal view. Pronotum anterior margin strongly produced, posterior margin nearly straight, longer than scutellum. Face slightly flattened, slightly narrower than length. Eyes fairly large, ocelli situated on anterior margin of crown and separate from eye by distance greater than ocellar diameter; antenna located near mid-height of eye; frontoclypeus narrow; anteclypeus approximately parallel sided; lora narrower than anteclypeus, extended to ventrolateral margin of face. Forewing with four apical cells and three subapical cells, inner subapical cell open, appendix developed but not extended around wing apex. Fore femur with IC setae long and fine, row AM with 1 stout seta, intercalary row with 11–13 setae, and row AV with several short setae in basal half. Hind femur apical setal formula 2+2+1 or 2+2+1+1. Hind tibia flattened and nearly straight, row PD with approximately 14–16 macrosetae decreasing in length toward the base; row AD with approximately 9 long stout setae and 1–5 shorter stout setae between each long seta; metabasitarsomere with five platellae and two tapered setae on apical transverse row, ventral surface with one row of six stout setae at middle and one row of five stout setae at lateral margin.

Male genitalia. Male pygofer side longer than height, with numerous macrosetae on posterior area, with ventral process on each inner side. Anal tube long and well sclerotized dorsally. Valve subtriangular. Subgenital plate broad basally and sharply narrowed posteriorly, with single row of macrosetae along lateral margin. Aedeagus with shaft usually curved dorsally, tubular, with pair of apical processes; gonopore apical. Connective Y-shaped. Style slender, apical half narrow.

Remarks. Watanabella may be distinguished from other genera in the tribe male pygofer side with a ventral process on the inner side; the abruptly narrowed subgenital plate apex with digitiform extension; the long and narrow style without preapical lobe; and the aedeagus in lateral view long, curved, narrowing towards apex, with a pair of terminal processes.

Distribution. Oriental Region and Palaearctic Region.