Pravistylus brachyplacus Stiller 2010, sp. n.
Creators: name: Stiller, M.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2010
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hemiptera
Cicadellidae
Pravistylus
Pravistylus brachyplacus

description: Pravistylus brachyplacus sp. n.   
(Figs 1 c; 2 aq; 3 f; 4 f; 5 m; 6 e; 7 d; 8 c & d)  
 Diagnosis. Plate short, 0.6–0.7 times as long as maximum width; lateral margin with a right-angled step medially; posterior margin truncate, or somewhat triangular (Fig. 2 aq). Aedeagal shaft short, tubular, Ushaped in lateral view (Figs 3 f, 4 f).   
 Etymology. Greek, for the plate (plakos) that is very short (brachys).   
 Male and female. Yellowish ochraceous. Vertex with fuscous marking near ocellus, some fuscous spots on pronotum. Tegmina with fuscous lining mainly in inner anteapical, posterior discal and brachial cells (Figs 8 c, male, 8 d, female). Hind wing triangular, less than half length of tegmina.   
 Male. Dimensions. (n = 8) Length: apex of vertex to apex of tegmina 2.0– 2.2 mm; apex of vertex to apex of abdomen 2.2–2.4 mm; vertex medially 0.4 mm; vertex next to eye 0.3 mm; pronotum medially 0.3 mm. Width: head 0.8 mm; pronotum 0.7 mm. Ocellar diameter 19.2–29.8 µm; ocellocular distance 42.0 µm.   
 Genital capsule. Pygofer short; ventral posterior margin with small bulbous lobe; dorsal posterior margin subapically lobate (Fig. 1 c). Pygofer lobe short, triangular, base about one third as wide as pygofer (Fig. 1 c). Plate short, mediolateral margin right-angled; tufts of setae proximad and distad of angle; posterior margin truncate or slightly triangular; 3–4 submarginal macrosetae (Fig. 2 aq); length 0.6–0.7 times as long as wide. Aedeagus, in lateral view, U-shaped; shaft short, parallel-sided, arising medially from atrium, in dorsal view slightly depressed; gonopore apical (Figs 3 f, 4 f). Style distal part close to short anterior medial lobe; apophysis straight, tapering to blunt point; preapical lobe rounded; basal lateral lobe long; apophysis with one major ventral tooth as well as fine serration (Fig. 5 m). Connective in lateral view with stem slightly angled dorsally; in dorsal view, stem triangular, about 0.25 times as long as arms (Fig. 6 e).   
 Female. Dimensions. (n = 14) Length: apex of vertex to apex of tegmina 2.3–2.4 mm; apex of vertex to apex of abdomen 2.5–2.9 mm; vertex medially 0.5 mm; vertex next to eye 0.3 mm; pronotum medially 0.3 mm. Width: head 0.8–0.9 mm; pronotum 0.8 mm. Ocellar diameter 14.7–23.3 µm; ocellocular distance 39.3– 46.7 µm.   
 Genitalia. Sternite 7 base rectangular; posterior marginal ligula rounded, short, narrow (Fig. 7 d).   
 Material examined. Holotype male. South Africa, Mpumalanga. Belfast 1 km W, 25°41ʹS, 29°58ʹE, 1900 m, 17.ii.2005, M. Stiller, DVac, grazed grassland (SANC). Paratypes. 8♂, 16♀. Mpumalanga. 7♂, 16♀, same data as holotype. KwaZulu-Natal. 1♂, Dundee, 28°10ʹS, 30°14ʹE, 21.i.1981, J.G. Theron, sweeping (BMNH, SANC).   
 Remarks. This species is distantly related to the other species with a short, tubular shaft with variable length, such as P. deltoplacus sp. n. (Fig. 3 c), P. mecophysis sp. n. (Fig. 3 d), P. bidentidiscus (Fig. 3 e) and P. mollidiscus sp. n. (Fig. 3 g). The former three species have a short, tubular or somewhat depressed shaft, with the apex curved or angled dorsally, except in P. mollidiscus sp. n. where the shaft is very thick and does not have the apex curved. No plate of any other species of Pravistylus is similar to that of P. brachyplacus (Fig. 2 aq). The colour of this species (Figs 8 c & d) is similar to that of P. eductus (Figs 8 m, o & q). The short, blunt ligula of sternite 7 of the female (Fig. 7 d) is unique within Pravistylus.
description: Published as part of Stiller, M., 2010, Revision of the Southern African leafhopper genus Pravistylus (Hemiptera, Cicadellidae, Deltocephalinae) 2468, pp. 1-81 in Zootaxa 2468 (1) on pages 11-12, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.2468.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/10094177