Erempsalta Moulds, 2012

Moulds, Max & Marshall, David C., 2022, New genera and new species of Western Australian cicadas (Hemiptera: Cicadidae), Zootaxa 5174 (5), pp. 451-507 : 493-494

Erempsalta Moulds, 2012

The genus Erempsalta was established by Moulds (2012) to accommodate a single species Erempsalta hermannsburgensis ( Distant, 1907) . The species has remained unknown beyond its brief original description and the male genitalia figured by Moulds (2012). Its only known locality was the remote Central Australian community of Hermannsburg, from which the species takes its name. We now redescribe the species, analyse its song and confirm its distribution across arid regions of five States.

Erempsalta hermannsburgensis remains the only known species in the genus but green species of Calipsalta gen. n. could possibly be confused. While superficially similar in appearance, the two genera are in fact quite different, both in their molecular makeup ( Marshall et al. 2016, fig 2) and in morphology as discussed above under Calipsalta gen. n.

Erempsalta hermannsburgensis was included in the molecular study of Cicadettini genera by Marshall et al. (2016) where it was found to be part of an unresolved clade at the very top of their molecular tree along with genera such as Heliopsalta Moulds, 2012 , Chelapsalta Moulds, 2012 , Pipilopsalta Ewart, 2005 and Simona Moulds, 2012 , conclusions largely similar to the results of the morphological study of Moulds (2012). All these genera have claspers that in ventral view are diverging and sharply pointed. Erempsalta differs from all those genera in having, in combination, a head clearly narrower than the width of the mesonotum between the wings and a basal pygofer lobe that is not tucked behind the base of the upper lobe.