Ulonemia leai Drake 1942
Creators: name: Shofner, Ryan
name: Cassis, Gerasimos
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2023
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hemiptera
Tingidae
Ulonemia
Ulonemia leai

description: Ulonemia leai Drake 1942b
(Figs 23A, B, E, F, 24, 25)
Ulonemia leai Drake 1942b: 360 [original description]; Drake and Ruhoff (1965a: 421) [world catalogue]; Cassis and Gross (1995: 438) [Australian catalogue]; Dang et al. (2014: 49) [taxonomy].
Type material
Holotype: AUSTRALIA: Queensland: Cairns district, A.M. Lea (Hacker Collection (C.J. Drake Collection 1956)), ♀ (USNM 00866832). Photograph of holotype examined.
Other material examined
AUSTRALIA: Queensland: Tully Falls, 17.78333°S 145.56667°E, 10 Mar 1956, J.L. Gressitt, Light Trap, 1 ♂ (UNSW _ ENT 00046439) (BPBM).? Mareeba (sic) area, 16.99708°S 145.42306°E, 13 Jun 1997, K. Lewis, Macadamia sp. (Proteaceae), 1 ♂ (UNSW _ ENT 00046440), 1 ♀ (UNSW _ ENT 00046441), 1 unknown sex (UNSW _ ENT 00046463) (QDPI). Beantree Rd. nr. Tolga, 17.23537°S 145.51378°E, 2015, Unknown, Macadamia sp. (Proteaceae), 2 ♀ (UNSW _ ENT 00046442, UNSW _ ENT 00046443), 1 ♂ (UNSW _ ENT 00046529) (UNSW).
Diagnosis: Ulonemia leai can be recognized by the following characters: paranota carina-like across pronotal disc; paranotal areolae all roughly equal size; discoidal area with eight areolae at widest point; occipital spines not reaching midpoint of eye; collum inflated posteriorly on either side of medial carina, broad, with concave anterior margin.
Male: Macropterous; 3.18 ± 0.00 mm (N = 2) (Table 3). COLORATION. Straw-coloured to reddish brown or golden-brown to brown (Fig. 23A, B, E, F). Head: golden-brown to brown; spinesstraw-coloured; bucculaestraw-coloured;eyesred. Antennae: AI-AIII golden-brown, AIV golden-brown proximally, quickly darkening to black distally. Rostrum: golden-brown with dark brown to black apex. Pronotum: disc straw-coloured to golden-brown; calli black; collum and paranota straw-coloured to golden-brown; lateral and medial carinae straw-coloured, medial carina occasionally brown posteriorly. Thoracic pleura and sterna: proepisternum straw-coloured anteriorly, mostly golden-brown to brown posteriorly, proepimeron straw-coloured, supracoxal lobes straw-coloured; mesepisternum mostly golden-brown to brown, mesepimeron and supracoxal lobes straw-coloured; metepisternum golden-brown to brown ventrally, straw-coloured dorsally; peritreme of metathoracic gland straw-coloured; prosternum and mesosternum golden-brown to brown, metasternum golden-brown; pro-, meso-, and metasternal carinae straw-coloured. Hemelytra: discoidal area reddish brown to brown, with straw-coloured to golden-brown field medially; subcostal area straw-coloured to golden-brown; costal area straw-coloured to golden-brown; sutural area reddish brown to brown. Legs: mostly golden-brown; tarsi dark brown to black distally. Abdominal venter: golden-brown. VESTITURE. Head: distribution of golden-brown aciculate setae in bands from base of AI to occipital spines and from frontal spines along either side of medial spine, to back of head; frons and gena with straw-coloured aciculate setae; medial spine with straw-coloured short aciculate to hooked setae; vertex with globules of wax; bucculae with minute setae and ciliate punctures. Antennae: AI–AII with straw-coloured sparse, arcuate setae; AIII with straw-coloured decumbent setae, AIV with straw-coloured aciculate setae. Pronotum: anterior margin glabrous, rarely with short setae; pronotal margins with sparse distribution of arcuate aciculate setae; medial and lateral carinae with sparse distribution of arcuate aciculate setae; disc with minute scale-like setae and numerous punctures with six to eight triangular tuberculate processes distributed evenly around internal rim of punctures; calli with dense short black setae, globules of wax often covering calli. Thoracic pleura and sterna: proepisternum with minute setae and tubercle-lined punctures anteriorly as on pronotal disc, lacking ciliate punctures posteriorly, proepimeron and supracoxal lobes with minute setae and tubercle-lined punctures; mesepisternum with minute setae, mesepimeron and supracoxal lobes with minute setae and tubercle-lined punctures posteriorly; metepisternum with minute setae and tubercle-lined punctures; propluron covered with small wax globules. Legs: coxae to femur with minute setae, tibia with minute setae proximally to aciculate setae distally. Hemelytra: sparse distribution of short aciculate setae on R + M and cubitus veins. Abdominal venter: minute setae and wax distributed throughout. STRUCTURE. Head: frontal spines slightly conical, parallel to convergent, approximately one-third length of AI; medial spine stout, conical, height one-half of AI; occipital spines straight, mostly cylindrical, conical at apex, length subequal to medial spine, hardly protruding from anterior edge of collum. Antennae: AI and AII short, AII one-third length of AI; AIII longer than distance between humeral angles, AIV linear to lanceolate. Labium: moderate length, extending beyond anterior margin of metasternum. Pronotum: strongly convex; collum mostly flattened, inflated posteriorly on either side of medial carina, height to one-half of disc; carinae minutely elevated from disc, height increasing posteriorly, uniseriate, areolae very small; medial and lateral carinae equal thickness, lateral carinae divaricating slightly at apex of disc; paranota curved, following disc, upturned obliquely, biseriate, becoming carina-like posteriorly, areolae rectangular. Thoracic sterna: pro-, meso-, and metasternal carinae elevated, uniseriate, areolae small, rectangular; prosternal and mesosternal carinae straight, parallel, metasternal carinae truncate-obovate. Hemelytra: areolae small, irregular, and nearly uniform size in discoidal and subcostal areas; sutural area areolae similar to discoidal area proximally, increasing in size to 5× distally; costal area areolae rectangular; costal area uniseriate, subcostal area biseriate, discoidal area increasing from one to eight areolae wide, sutural area increasing from two to 11 areolae wide. Male genitalia: pygophore boxlike, with lateral margins only slightly curved, sometimes with pair of basal spurs near posterior margin of genital margin (Fig. 24A, B); parameres C-shaped with apophysis strongly tapered distally (Fig. 24C–E); aedeagus with Y-shaped dorsal plate (Fig. 24F); endosomal membrane lacking spinules (Fig. 24F–H); pair of sclerotized, endosomal lobal sclerites present but highly reduced in form (Fig. 24F—H).
Female: Macropterous; 3.41 ± 0.05 mm (N = 2) (Table 3). COLORATION. As in male. VESTITURE. As in male. STRUCTURE. As in male.
Plant associations: Recorded from Macadamia sp., six specimens (Proteaceae).
Distribution: Drake (1942b) recorded the type from ‘Corns District’., which is a typographical error, as the tag on the holotype (visible in photos) says ‘Cairns dist’. Drake and Ruhoff (1965a) corrected the error and list the type locality as ‘Cairns District’. Also known from near Mareeba and the Atherton Tablelands and Tully Gorge National Park south of Cairns, Queensland (Fig. 25).
Remarks: This species superficially resembles U. dignata, and due to its unique morphological character combinations and genetic differentiation from other Australian Ulonemia s.l., it is the only species from Australia to be retained in the genus.
description: Published as part of Shofner, Ryan & Cassis, Gerasimos, 2024, Phylogenetics and taxonomy of the Indo-Australian genus Ulonemia sensu Drake (Hemiptera: Tingidae), with the recognition of new genera and species collected from Proteaceae in Australia, pp. 360-425 in Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 200 (2) on pages 421-422, DOI: 10.1093/zoolinnean/zlad080, http://zenodo.org/record/11240237