Dwightla medleri Lu & Zhang 2018, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Lu, Lin
name: Zhang, Yalin
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2018
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hemiptera
Cicadellidae
Dwightla
Dwightla medleri

description: Dwightla medleri Lu & Zhang, sp. nov. (Figs. 1 A –S)
Description. Length (including tegmen). Male: 9.5 mm.
Body light brown (Fig.1, A). Profemur intercalary row (IC) with 7 fine setae; anteroventral setae (AV) row six small stout setae near distal and six long setae near ventral margin, with AV1 present and long distally (Fig.1, R); fore tibiae dorsal rows with 1+11 setae (Fig.1, Q). Hind femur with apical setal formula 2+2+1 (Fig.1, S).
Male abdomen. 2nd acrotergite with trunk horizontal; neck slender and shorter than half of trunk width; 2nd tergal apodeme with posterior lobes vestigial (Fig.1, I). 1 st sternal apodeme elongate with posterior lobes developed, longer than width, convergent distally in dorsal anterior view (Fig.1, J, K); 2nd sternal apodeme with posterior lobes short, triangular in shape (Fig.1, L).
Male genitalia. Pygofer with dorsal and ventral margin extended posteriorly to apex; pygofer lobe without macrosetae and inner processes (Fig.1, M). Style with apical process extended strongly forward, with apex relatively thick (Fig.1, P). Connective short, stem shorter than branch, divergent apically (Fig.1, F, P). Aedeagus with single shaft and gonopore, and with one pair of subapical long processes and with atrium in posterior view vase-shaped, rounded laterally and evenly straight on lateral margin of shaft apex, preatrium developed, dorsal atrium nearly equal to the length of shaft; gonopore large, apically on ventral side (Fig.1, F, G, H).
Material examined. Holotype: male, Nigeria, nr. Siluko, NW State, 24-March-1973, Coll. J.T. Medler.
Etymology. The specific epithet “ medleri ” is named in honor of J.T Medler, who collected the type specimen and contributed extensively to taxonomy of the suborder Auchenorrhyncha.
Remarks. D. medleri is closely related to D. delongi based on the similar pygofer, which lacks processes but has the caudal portion strongly tapered and attenuate; and the aedeagus, which has a pair of long distal processes. The main differences from D. delongi are: 1) body color light brown (reddish brown in D. delongi); 2) apex of style relatively thick (relatively thin in D. delongi); 3) atrium of aedeagus in posterior view vase-shaped, and rounded laterally (nearly straight in D. delongi); 4) lateral margin of aedeagal apex evenly straight, process with base stout, broad and tapered, apex emarginate (rounded in D. delongi); 5) lateral processes of aedeagus extended ventrad (extended anterad in D. delongi); 6) shaft of aedeagus shorter than in D. delongi in lateral view; and 7) aedeagus with paired processes more strongly divergent from shaft in caudal view.
description: Published as part of Lu, Lin & Zhang, Yalin, 2018, Review of the Afrotropical genus Dwightla McKamey (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae: Deltocephalinae: Selenocephalini) with description of a new species from Nigeria, pp. 267-270 in Zootaxa 4370 (3) on pages 268-270, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4370.3.4, http://zenodo.org/record/1145535