Xhoreus Stiller & Webb 2022, gen. n.
Creators: name: Stiller, Michael
name: Webb, Michael D.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2022
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hemiptera
Cicadellidae
Xhoreus

description: Xhoreus gen. n.
Figs 19–21
Type species: Xhoreus ulosentus sp. n., by present designation.
Diagnosis.
1. Small leafhopper; male and female: length from apex of crown to apex of tegmina 2.6–2.9 mm; crown length medially 0.5–0.6 mm; crown angle 89–91°.
2. Dorsum of head in male and female with brown to dark brown color pattern with apex of crown with deltate, paired, proximate marking and disc with variable, hourglass-shaped or amorphous marking, small ovoid paired making near base of head (Fig. 19A, B, D–F).
Terminalia in male:
3. Valve semicircular (Fig. 20C), length/width=0.4.
4. Pygofer incised dorsally to half its length; pygofer lobe in lateral view, rectangular, with apex with dorsal and ventral margins rounded, edentate; dorsomedially with 3–5 long, scattered macrosetae (length 12–17 µm) and up to 20 short macrosetae, laterobasally of suture (length 6–9µm) (Fig. 20B).
5. Segment 10 small, dolioform (0.4 times as wide as width across pygofer at point of greatest width of segment 10), longer than wide, not reaching apex of pygofer lobe (dorsal view, length/width=1.2–1.3) (Fig. 20A).
6. Connective about as wide as long (greatest length/greatest width=0. 8–1.0), stem and arms of similar width (length arm/length stem=0.5–0.8, width across arms/width across stem=3.5–5.6).
7. Aedeagus with short curvate shaft, atrium and preatrium elongate, base of preatrium with single, elongate process, about as long former three parts (Fig. 20F–J).
Terminalia in female:
8. Posterior margin of sternite 7 distally with wide, V-shaped (137–152°), basally narrow, V-shaped notch (74– 102°) (Fig. 21A, B); greatest length/greatest width=0.4–0.5, depth of notch/greatest length=0.37–0.46.
9. Valvula 3 with numerous marginal submarginal setae apically (Fig. 21J, K); protruding more than one third of pygofer length (Fig. 19D–F).
10. Valvifer 2 sculpture pore-like (Fig. 21F, G).
Etymology. Named for Chief Xhore (pronounced Coree, alternatively with alveolar lateral click) of the Goringhaiqua people of the south western part of South Africa, for documented interactions with British and Dutch sailors between 1600 and 1630 and now a lost name, culture and language. Gender masculine.
Description.
Male, female and nymph.
Color. Ground color ochraceous to stramineous, with light to dark brown markings. Nymph ochraceous to darker brown, wing pad margin yellow, darker specimens with brown, deltate paired marking.
Head. Apex of crown with paired, elongated triangular marking; disc with brown to light brown hourglassshaped marking, variably constricted medially; small circular to amorphous marks mediad of ocelli; medially near compound eyes with single, paired, amorphous brown marking (Fig. 19A, B, D–F).
Face. Ochraceous, with light brown horizontal arcs on clypeus (Fig. 19I).
Pronotum. 1–3 pairs of fused or separate brown marks (Fig. 19A, B, D–F).
Tegmina. Cells opaque, whitish, brown marking in inner and outer discal cells, veins light brown, reticulation in claval cells (Fig. 19A–C, D–F).
Hind wing. Smokey, opaque, veins brown.
Morphology.
Head. Wider than pronotum.
Face. Clypellus slightly longer than wide, parallel-sided, posterior margin shallowly rounded, anterior margin strongly rounded extended beyond posterior margin of gena. Lorum with posterior margin extended beyond gena. Notch on gena below eye shallow (Fig. 19I).
Ocellus. Ocellus diameter/interocular distance=0.5–0.6.
Tegmina. Length/width=2.1–2.2; appendix absent, four apical cells, anteapical cells reduced, with central cell and inner cell fused with inner discal cell (Figs 20L, male, 21P, female).
Hind wing. Reduced, about half as wide as width of tegmina, about 4/5 as long as tegmina (Figs 20M, male, 21Q, female). Costal margin sublinear; narrow, elongate, opaque; about one third shorter and narrower respectively than tegmina length and width; length/width=2.9–3.1.
Tegmina-hind wing relation. Ratio of length tegmina/length hind wing male=1.2–1.3, female=1.2; width tegmina/width hind wing male=1.7, female=1.6–1.8.
Chaetotaxy. Profemur row AV 7–9 short, wide setae, row IC 7–9 long, fine setae, AV 1 single, AM 1 single; Spinulation of protibia 1+4, mesotibia 4+4, metafemur apex 2+2+1. Metatarsus 1 apical plantar setae include four rounded platellae, one acute seta (lateral); metatarsus 2 apical plantar setae include one acute seta, two rounded platellae and one acute seta.
Measurements.
Male. Apex of crown to apex of tegmina 2.6–2.8 mm, apex of crown to apex of abdomen 2.7–2.9 mm; crown length 0.5– 0. 6 mm; crown length next to eyes 0.3–0.4 mm; pronotum length 0.3–0.4 mm; head width 1.1 mm; pronotum width 0.9–1.0 mm; ocellus diameter 28 µm; interocular distance 44–57 µm.
Female. Apex of crown to apex of tegmina 2.7–2.9 mm, apex of crown to apex of abdomen 3.2–3.5 mm; crown length 0.6 mm; crown length next to eyes 0.4 mm; pronotum length 0.4 mm; head width 1.1–1.2 mm; pronotum width 1.0– 1.1 mm; ocellus diameter 25–32 µm; interocular distance 50–59 µm.
Terminalia.
Male.
Segment 10. Short; in dorsal view cylindrical, length/width=1.2–1.3, laterally, anteroventral margins digitate; in lateral view parallel-sided, slightly narrower than in dorsal view, anterobasal margin triangular. Incised halfway into pygofer, narrow relative to greatest width of pygofer in dorsal view (width segment 10/greatest width of pygofer at point of greatest width of segment 10=0.30–0.33) (Fig. 20A).
Pygofer. Rectangular in lateral view; basolateral suture sublinear, angled about 45° or curvate, extended less than half-way into pygofer; anterior margin medially with elongated apodeme; 3–5 long (12–17 µm) and up to 20 short (4–8 µm) macrosetae near dorsal distal half of pygofer lobe; group of 10–25 macrosetae ventrodistally of basolateral suture, 6–9 µm in length (Fig. 20A, B).
Pygofer lobe. Pygofer lobe defined by point distad of incision of segment 10; edentate, slightly narrower than basal width of pygofer, posterior margin near-rectangular, with rounded distal dorsal and distal ventral corners (Fig. 20B).
Subgenital plate. Medial margin straight, lateral margins widely, uniformly to irregularly, shallowly convex; apex acute; 1–2 submarginal rows of macrosetae, longest macrosetae about half as long as medial width of subgenital plate or shorter.
Valve. Semi-ovate (Fig. 20C).
Style. Apophysis elongate, in dorsal view depressed, acutely triangular, denticulate ventrally, base wider than width at preapical lobe, preapical lobe ventral; anterior medial lobe curved dorsad (Fig. 20D, E); style apex near apex of subgenital plate (Fig. 20C).
Connective. Y-shaped with narrow stem and arms, of similar proportions, arms widely separated, articulated with base of preatrium (Fig. 20K).
Aedeagus. Complex structure (Fig. 20F), with short curvate shaft, elongated atrium and preatrium, reduced dorsal apodeme, base of preatrium produced into single, slightly asymmetric process (Fig. 20F, I). Shaft with paired, apical, anterior process and paired, medioposterior process (Fig. 20G, H, J).
Female.
Sternite 7. Transversely rectangular, posterior margin with V-shaped notch, about one third as wide as width across posterior margin, margin of notch sclerotized (Figs 19G, H, 21A, B).
Valvula 1. Lanceolate (Fig. 21H).
Valvula 2. Lanceolate, basally slightly narrower than distally (Fig. 21I), serration of dorsal margin apically and medially with short teeth in trough between slightly raised, rounded teeth (Fig. 21N, O, apex and midsection respectively).
Valvula 3. Up to 15 long and short setae (Fig. 21J, K).
Valvifer 1. Longer than wide (Fig. 21D); in dorsal view fused medially (Fig. 21C).
Valvifer 2. Elongate (Fig. 21E), sculpture with 5–10 pore-like structures near distal margin (Fig. 21F, G).
Remarks. The combination of internal and external features separates this genus from any known genus of leafhoppers. However, there is near identical color pattern of the head of Xhoreus (Fig. 19) and that of Colistra (Figs 1, 2, 3) and the paired, deltate marks occur in other genera but with different size and orientation, i.e., Kimbella (Fig. 4A, B), Bonaspeia (Fig. 5A–C), Curvostylus (Fig. 4E–H), unnamed species (Figs 4C, 5D, 6A, B) and Retevolatus Stiller (2021). Features of internal male genitalia are not known to correspond to any other described species in the Fynbos Biome, in particular the aedeagus with a single, preatrial process. At present this single process is not interpreted as a fusion of paired processes. A single preatrial process is observed in specimens of an undescribed species from Cradock (Fig. 5F, G) and East London, Eastern Cape province (personal observation) but these share no other corresponding features with Xhoreus. Specimens of an undescribed species from Gansbaai (-34.58 19.35) (Fig. 5D, E), a coastal locality about 100km SE of Scarborough and the Cape Point peninsula, have a similar aedeagus in lateral profile, i.e., short tubular edentate shaft, elongated preatrium but paired, elongated, preatrial processes. Externally this leafhopper and Caffrolix johani Davies, 1988 (Fig. 6D, E) have different markings of the head, but similar dimensions to that of Colistra and Caffrolix sp. (Fig. 6C). Examples of leafhoppers with paired preatrial, atrial or shaft-associated processes on the aedeagus are Discolopeus Stiller, Gcaleka Naudé and Renosteria Theron. The symmetrical, Y-shaped connective with narrow stem and arms of Xhoreus is a feature commonly associated with many tribes of Deltocephalinae (Zahniser and Dietrich 2013).
description: Published as part of Stiller, Michael & Webb, Michael D., 2022, Leafhoppers of the Fynbos Biome of South Africa: Colistra, Proekes, Proekoides and a new genus (Insecta, Hemiptera, Cicadellidae, Deltocephalinae, Bonaspeiini), pp. 1-79 in Zootaxa 5199 (1) on pages 47-51, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5199.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/7251761