Literna Stal 1866
Creators: name: Bucher, Manon
name: Bouteille, Emilien
name: Cesne, Maxime Le
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2024
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hemiptera
Cercopidae
Literna

description: Genus Literna Stål, 1866
Fig. 5
Type species
Literna maura (Thunberg, 1822).
Synthetic description
Literna is an African genus, described long ago in a very brief manner by Stål (1866), making it impossible to currently determine the species with his original publication. Most of its species are present in Madagascar. Lallemand proposed a refined description of this genus in 1912 based on the general body shape and wing venation (Lallemand 1912). He updated his description in 1949 by adding genitalia characters for males and females, but they remained too general to qualify them as characteristic for this genus (Lallemand 1949). The male genitalia have been described for only three species: L. altipeta Lallemand & Synave, 1952; L. muscophila Lallemand & Synave, 1952 and L. pauliani Lallemand & Synave, 1952 (Lallemand & Synave 1952). Hence, the description of the male genitalia for this genus is not presented in this publication. Moreover, some species, such as L. callosipenis (Signoret, 1860), seem to show morphological characters similar to the species now assigned to the new genus Soulierana Bucher & Bouteille gen. nov. Nevertheless, types-specimen(s) were not consulted during this study and as a result, no taxonomic revisions have been made for these taxa. However, the lack of information for the genitalia characters highlights the need for further taxonomic studies. A synthesis based on the older descriptions for the Malagasy species is presented below:
HEAD. In dorsal view (Fig. 5A), head as wide as long. Ocelli closer to each other than to compound eyes and generally separated by carina, barely visible or even absent in some species (Fig. 5A, C); a carina can be observed on frons. Postclypeus with large furrow which can extend over its entire length, but not necessarily; lateral edges of furrow usually diffused (Fig. 5C). In some species, such as L. callosipennis (Signoret 1860), L. hovana Lallemand, 1949, L. madegassa Lallemand, 1949 and L. signata Jacobi, 1917, lateral part of postclypeus marked with two carina and deep furrow. Postclypeus striated laterally.
THORAX. Anterior margin of pronotum strongly declining; presence of a few dimples on anterior part. Scutellum longer than wide. Hindlegs with one spine on metatibiae.
TEGMINA. Tegmina longer than wide (Fig. 5A) in tapered shape, except for L. ochracea Jacobi, 1917, which possesses oval tegmina strongly rounded on posterior part. One or few bumps on anterior part of tegmina.
MALE GENITALIA. Male genitalia with sterno-lateral plates.
Distribution
Tropical Africa, South Africa and Madagascar.
Number of species: 25, 16 in Madagascar.
Literna altipeta Lallemand & Synave, 1952
Literna ankaratrana Lallemand & Synave, 1954
Literna callosa (Signoret, 1858)
Literna callosipennis (Signoret, 1860)
Literna gracilis Lallemand, 1949
Literna hovana Lallemand, 1949
Literna lacomblei Lallemand, 1920
Literna madegassa Lallemand, 1949
Literna minuscula Jacobi, 1917
Literna muscophila Lallemand & Synave, 1952
Literna ochracea Jacobi, 1917
Literna pauliani Lallemand & Synave, 1952
Literna signata Jacobi, 1917
Literna sylvicola Lallemand & Synave, 1952
Literna tanalae Lallemand, 1920
Literna vicina Lallemand, 1942
description: Published as part of Bucher, Manon, Bouteille, Emilien & Cesne, Maxime Le, 2024, Malagasy spittlebugs (Hemiptera: Cercopidae), a taxonomic review of genera from Madagascar, pp. 166-202 in European Journal of Taxonomy 935 on pages 177-179, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2024.935.2555, http://zenodo.org/record/11400806