Sweta bambusana, Yang, Lin, Chen, Xiang-Sheng & Li, Zi-Zhong, 2012

Yang, Lin, Chen, Xiang-Sheng & Li, Zi-Zhong, 2012, First record of the leafhopper genus Sweta Viraktamath & Dietrich (Hemiptera, Cicadellidae, Typhlocybinae) from China, with description of one new species feeding on bamboo, ZooKeys 187, pp. 35-43 : 36

Sweta bambusana sp. n. Figs 116

Type material.

Holotype: ♂, China: Guizhou, Huishui, Yantang (26°08'N, 106°39'E), collected from bamboo ( Dendrocalamus affinis ), 31 May 2008, X.-S. Chen and L. Yang (IEGU); paratypes: 3 ♀♀, same data as holotype (IEGU); 3 ♂♂, 4♀♀, Guizhou, Changshun, Weiyuan (26°02'N, 106°27'E), collected from bamboo ( Dendrocalamus affinis ), 30 Sept. 1997, X.-S. Chen and L. Yang (IEGU), one male and female deposited in BMNH; 3 ♀♀, Guangdong, Guangzhou, Baiyunshan (23°10'N, 113°18'E), collected from bamboo, 21 Nove. 2006, X.-S. Chen (IEGU).

Etymology.

The new species is named after the host plant bamboo ( Bambusoideae ).

Description.

Body length (from apex of vertex to tip of forewings): male 4.03-4.15 mm (N = 5); female 3.75-4.22 mm (N = 10); forewing length: male 3.25-3.30 mm (N = 5); female 3.05-3.31 mm (N = 10).

Coloration.

Milky white to pale yellow (Figs 13-16). Forewing cells rather clouded with faint pale brown; distal portions of tarsi dark brown (Figs 3, 13, 14).

Head and thorax.

External features as in diagnosis. Crown shorter medially than width between eyes (0.14:1). Pronotum shorter medially than width at widest part (0.55:1), longer medially than crown (4.0:1). Scutellum shorter medially than pronotum (0.31: 1). Forewing longer medially than width at widest part (2.95:1). Hindwing longer medially than width at widest part (3.65:1).

Abdomen.

Male abdomen with 3S apodemes subparallel, extended to midlength of segment V (Fig. 5).

Male genitalia.

Aedeagus with both pair of preapical processes curved laterally, lower pair slightly shorter than more dorsal pair (Figs 9, 10, 11); shaft apex blunt and rounded. Other features as in generic diagnosis.

Female genitalia.

Seventh sternite (Fig. 12) broad basally, triangularly produced posteriorly with rather rounded apex.

Host plant.

Bamboo ( Dendrocalamus affinis (Rendle) Mcclure) (Figs 17, 18).

Distribution.

Southern China (Guizhou and Guangdong) (Fig. 19).

Remarks.

This new species is very closely related to Sweta hallucinata Viraktamath & Dietrich, 2011 from Thailand and India, but can be distinguished by the aedeagus with apex blunt and rounded (tapering in hallucinata); the lower pair of subapical processes slightly shorter than more dorsal pair (in hallucinata, the lower pair are distinctly longer than the more upper pair); male abdomen with the 3S apodemes extended to midlength of the segment V (extended to midlength of the segment IV in hallucinata); the female abdominal sternite VII more or less triangular (relatively rounded in hallucinata).