Tomaspisinella Lallemand
Creators: name: Andrew Hamilton, K. G.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2016
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hemiptera
Cercopidae
Tomaspisinella

description: Tomaspisinella Lallemand, redefined
Tomaspisinella Lallemand, 1927: 117. Type-species by original designation: T. parva Lallemand, 1927.
Hemitomaspis Lallemand, 1949: 31, syn.nov. Type-species by original designation: Tomaspis caligata Jacobi, 1908.
Distribution. Neotropical, from Costa Rica south to Venezuela.
Diagnosis. Superficially similar to Menytes (Fig. 14 A) but without sulcate face; color usually black to brown (except jocosa sp. nov.), body shorter, broader across the head, with convex tegmina (Fig. 35) and distinctive antenna (Figs 19 A–C) with postpedicel retracted into pedicel, as in Orthoraphini (Aphrophorinae) and basiconic sensillum elongate and setiform, as in Menytes and Simorhina (Neaenini) and Sphenorhina Amyot & Serville (Ischnorhinini).
Description. Head distinctly to slightly narrower than pronotum (Carvalho & Webb 2005, figs 280–281); eyes varying from globose to transverse; crown short, weakly concave; antennal ledge arched above coronal margin; frons convexly inflated. Pronotum with anterior margin steeply declivous (Fig. 5 C), anterior border weakly to distinctly bowed; lateral margins as long as eyes to much shorter than half length of eyes, surface variable from medially carinate and transversely rugulose (Fig. 26) to smooth with scattered pits (Fig. 27) or densely setose (Fig. 35, Merinx subg. nov.), the nominate subgenus having fine setae (Fig. 5 C). Tegmina convex, shiny to hirsute; hind wing with 3 apical cells (Cu is unbranched; appendix large, even width around tip of wing. Fore femora distinctly longer than hind femora. Hind tibiae with 2 spines on outer edge, both long in smallest species, but basal one tiny in largest species; hind tibial pectin with 8–9 spines; hind basitarsal pecten of 6–7 black-tipped spines, that of second tarsomere with 8–9 such spines (hind legs missing from type of T. parva); arolia variable from much shorter than claws (in the type-species) as in Ischnorhinini, to longer than the claws (in Merinx subg. nov.). Male pygofer usually elongate and deeply notched dorsally on each side of anal tube (Figs 28–35 A) as in Menytes; subgenital plates absent or broad, fused to pygofer, nearly vertical, upper angles with decurved, pointed tips, sometimes with long, median processes (Fig. 34 D); styles unarmed or absent; phallobase short, sometimes fused to theca to form aedeagus; shaft unarmed or with paired, retrorse processes (Figs 28 C, 34–35C).
Included species. The original description included Tomaspisinella caligata (Jacobi) T. parva Lallemand, T. minuscula (Jacobi) and 2 species now assigned to Zuata. Carvalho & Webb (2005) added T. apicifasciata (Fowler), known only from the female type, and these identities (except that of minuscula) have been confirmed by examination of the antennae. T. punctatissima (Stål: Lepyronia) comb.nov. and T. ignobilis (Fowler), comb.nov. were formerly placed in Hemitomaspis Lallemand and are here transferred to Tomaspisinella. These together with 6 new species increase the genus to 12 species. The typical subgenus appears to be paraphyletic with respect to 3 other apomorphic subgenera, with T. lucifer sp. nov. intermediate in pronotal characters and T. diabolos sp. nov. intermediate in genital characters.
description: Published as part of Andrew Hamilton, K. G., 2016, Neotropical spittlebugs related to Neaenini (Hemiptera, Cercopidae) and the origins of subfamily Cercopinae, pp. 201-250 in Zootaxa 4169 (2) on pages 223-224, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4169.2.1, http://zenodo.org/record/262585