Stirellus pakistanicus Shah & Duan 2022, sp. n.
Creators: name: Shah, Bismillah
name: Khan, Waqar
name: Naveed, Hassan
name: Shakeel, Muhammad
name: Duan, Yani
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2022
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hemiptera
Cicadellidae
Stirellus
Stirellus pakistanicus

description: Stirellus pakistanicus Shah & Duan sp. n.
(Fig. 1A–J)
Measurement. Male: 3.9mm.
Description. Coloration. General color chocolate brown (Fig. 1A–D). Crown anterior portion black with two conspicuous black spots normally present in middle adjacent to eyes (Fig. 1A, 1C). Eye reddish brown, surrounded with yellow band (Fig. 1A–D). Face black with yellowish patch on frontoclypeus (Fig. 1D). Pronotum with black band along the anterior margin, whitish across the middle while yellowish brown at the posterior margin (Fig. 1A, 1C). Mesonotum and scutellum yellowish brown (Fig. 1A, 1C). Thorax and abdomen black in ventral and lateral view (Fig. 1B). Abdominal segments separated by yellowish bands (Fig. 1B). Forewing dark brownish with prominent venation (Fig. 1A–B).
Morphology. Crown narrower than pronotum, with anterior margin slightly angulate and smoothly curved to face (Fig. 1A–D). Crown almost equal to or a little longer than breadth between eyes (Fig. 1A, 1C). Ocellus next to eye slightly below anterior margin of crown (Fig. 1B, 1D). Antennae long and thin. Face slightly longer than broad (Fig. 1D). Pronotum median length a little smaller than median length of crown with posterior margin slightly concave (Fig. 1A, 1C). Mesonotum and scutellum generally shorter than pronotum. Scutellum with a transverse impression in middle (Fig. 1C). Forewing macropterous (Fig. 1A–B).
Male genitalia. Pygofer lobe broad basally with apex truncate (Fig. 1E). Pygofer side with few dorsal macrosetae (Fig. 1E). Subgenital plate large, triangular, with a row of uniseriate macrosetae (Fig. 1F). Valve triangular. Style narrow with digitate apophysis, laterally curved (Fig. 1G). Connective H-shaped with stem slightly shorter than arms (Fig. 1H). Aedeagal shaft long, bent at near base, nearly parallel to aedeagal base, with a slight dorsal curve at mid-length in lateral view, apex pointed and slightly curved dorsad, gonopore apical (Fig. 1I–J).
Material examined. Holotype: Pakistan: Punjab: ♂, Attock, 33°51′4.2192′′ N, 72°15′59.292′′ E, sweeping hand net, 16 June 2021, coll. Waqar Khan and Bismillah Shah.
Distribution. Pakistan [Attock (Fig. 2)].
Remarks. The new species described in this paper appears to key out to S. indrus (couplet 8) in our previous key (See Shah et al., 2020b). However it can readily be distinguished from S. indrus by the crown with anterior portion black (Fig. 1A, 1C); two conspicuous black spots normally present in middle adjacent to eyes (Fig. 1A, 1C); and face black with yellowish patch on frontoclypeus (Fig. 1D). Also, the new species has coloration similar to some species described from the Americas (e.g., Stirellus bicolor, Stirellus picinus) and Australia (Stirellus petfordensis).
Etymology. This species is named for the country Pakistan, where the type specimen has been collected.
description: Published as part of Shah, Bismillah, Khan, Waqar, Naveed, Hassan, Shakeel, Muhammad & Duan, Yani, 2022, A new species in the grassland leafhopper genus Stirellus Osborn & Ball (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae: Deltocephalinae: Stenometopiini) from Pakistan, pp. 344-350 in Zootaxa 5125 (3) on pages 346-347, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5125.3.6, http://zenodo.org/record/6443920