Pyropsalta 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 : 497

Pyropsalta Moulds, 2012

Pyropsalta is an endemic genus confined to south-western Western Australia. When first established it included only the type species, Pyropsalta melete ( Walker, 1850) , that has remained the only described species in the genus. We now describe three additional species.

These three additional species largely conform to the generic description of Moulds (2012) although there are differences in male timbal morphology and small differences in the male genitalia, the latter not considered significant. The timbals of all three new species have an unusually large timbal cavity that is most extreme in P. patula sp. n., each with three long ribs and an expansive anterior membrane largely devoid of structures apart from a short thin rudimentary rib at its dorsal posterior corner, another similar rib tight against the anterior margin and a securitised basal area. This differs from the type species that has a timbal cavity of usual proportions, four long ribs, and a small anterior membrane area with one rudimentary short rib at its dorsal anterior.

In a molecular study by Marshall et al. (2016: fig. 2) species of Pyropsalta and Physeema Moulds, 2012 were found to form a single clade with strong support. However, one of the new species of Pyropsalta described below, Py. rhythmica sp. n., was found to be not sister to the type species of Pyropsalta , but separated from it in a sister clade together with Physeema convergens ( Walker, 1850) . This suggests that Py. rhythmica sp. n. (together with the two other species described below) possibly represent a new genus. However, we refrain from taking that action without further evidence, because the support for these relationships in the molecular tree is not entirely conclusive (0.94 Bayesian posterior probabilities, 74 and 69 percent ML bootstrap support). We therefore treat the differences in timbal morphology as indicative of species attributes rather than generic attributes, and because all other attributes are compatible with Pyropsalta with include them in that genus.