Cephisus variolosus Walker
Creators: name: Hamilton, Andrew
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2012
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hemiptera
Aphrophoridae
Cephisus
Cephisus variolosus

description: Cephisus variolosus (Walker), reinstated
(Figs 1 E–F, 2D–F)
Ptyelus variolosus Walker, 1858: 188.
Cephisus siccifolius [sic]: Stål, 1866: 384 (incorrect synonymy).? Cephisus siccifolius cubanus Metcalf & Bruner, 1944: 112.
Type locality. Unknown locality in Mexico.
Diagnosis. The common species in Central America, variable in size and color, probably a species complex. Head 0.8x as wide as pronotum (lateral margins of pronotum thus longer than 3/4 length of eye); robust to rather slender, tegmina 11–15 mm long. Tawny to brown, darker on midline of crown; clypellus and lower fifth of frons blackish brown; usually with paler areas forming indefinite lineations on pronotum, and 3 crescent-shaped oblique bands across middle of each tegmen; sometimes entire dorsum tawny, contrasting with tegmina. Style with short, broadly rounded apical process and slender, strongly hooked dorsal process on inner edge (Fig. 12 C); theca shaft slender, recurved, armed with a pair of short, recurved lateral processes and a pair of ventroapical processes 1.5x as long as lateral pair, extending nearly to base of shaft (Fig. 12 B). Length: male 11.5–14.5 mm, female 13.5–18.5 mm. Width across head: male 3.3 mm, female 4.0 mm; across pronotum: male 4.2 mm, female 5.0 mm.
Types. Holotype female of variolosus, MEXICO; in BMNH. Holotype male of cubanus, CUBA: Las Animas 1500' [500 m ASL], 15 June 1935 (F. de Zayas); 5 paratypes from same locality; types in NCSU. Types of cubanus not examined; identity based on original description and illustrations as specimens are too old to be successfully barcoded.
Additional material. BELIZE: 1 male, Indian Church; COSTA RICA: 2 males, 1 female from Puntarenas —San Luis at U of GA ecolodge, N10 16.957' W84 47.927', 22–24 July 2003 (N.H. Nazdrowicz); 1 male from Guanacaste — 9 km S Santa Cecilia 700 m ASL; 1 male, San José —San Antonio de Escazú 1300 m ASL; GUATEMALA: 5 males, 1 female from Sac. —Capetillo 5000' [1600 m ASL]; MEXICO: 24 males, 28 females from Chis. —Palenque, 17 mi SE Teopisca, 4 km N Tuxtla Gutiérrez; Guer. — 20 mi N Iguala, 4 mi S Taxco 4800' [1600 m ASL]; Jal. —Guadalajara, 20 mi SW Tepatitlan 5000–6000' [1600–1900 m ASL]; Mex. —Ixtapan 5500' [1800 m ASL]; Mich. —Mazamitla; Mor. —Cocoyac; N.L. — 5 mi S Monterrey; S.L.P. —Tamazunchale; Sin. — 13 mi E Concordia 800' [250 m ASL], El Palmito, Portrerillos, Santa Lucia; Ver. —Catemaco, Lk. Catemaco, Puente Nacional; PANAMA: 6 males, 3 females from Barro Colorado Is., El Volcan; TRINIDAD: 2 males, 6 females from Arima Valley; 7–27 Feb. and 2 May-Sept.; in AMNH, BMNH, CNCI, FMC and NYSM.
Unassociated females: COSTA RICA: 3 from San José, Turrialba; ECUADOR: 2 from Rio Panlenque, Estacion Biologica; GUATEMALA: 1 from San Jeronimo B.V.P. 3000' [950 m ASL]; JAMAICA: 1 from Montego Bay; MEXICO: 12 from Jal. —Lk. Chapala, La Quemada; Mich. —Cojumatlan; Nay. —Mecatan, Tepic; S.L.P. —Tamazunchale; Ver. —Cerro Gordo, Lk. Catemaco, Presidio; PANAMA: 5 from Barro Colorado I.; U.S.A.: 3 from AZ —Douglas, Sierra Vista; TX —Sinton; 6 Feb.–17 Mar. and 20 May– 15 Aug. and Sept.; in AMNH, BMNH, CNCI and FMC.
Distribution. Mountains of Central America, from Panama to Mexico; entering the southern USA in subtropical regions of Arizona and Texas.
Remarks. This species is very variable in color (Figs. 1 E–H), size, robustness and angularity of crown (Figs. 2 D–F) and apparently represents a biological species complex. Three specimens (#CNCHB 1904–11, from 5 km N Oaxaca, 20 June 1979; #CNCHB 1905–11 from 17 mi SE Teopisca, Chiapas, 3–4 June 1969, and #CNCHB 1906–11 from Lake Catemaco, Veracruz, 1 May 1969) were barcoded and found to be separated by 3.5–6% divergence with the specimen from Oaxaca showing the greatest individual divergence. By contrast, other Cercopidae have a maximum 1.5% genetic divergence within a species. It will probably require biological studies to separate these species; and even then, the identity of the type of variolosus may remain in doubt. The female holotype of variolosus is 16.0 mm long, 5.1 mm across the humeral angles and has a right-angled crown (as in Fig. 2 F), which is as slender and even longer in the crown than in Metcalf's illustration of cubanus.
A strikingly bicoloured form from Mexico, with the dorsum and upper half of frons ochre-yellow, contrasting with unmarked dark brown tegmina (Figs. 1 F, 2D) and blackish venter, is represented by the single male from Cocoyac (AMNH) and the female from 20 mi N Iguala (CNCI). This may represent yet another unnamed species, but until more recent material suitable for barcoding, or an unmixed series is found, it is regarded as just another variant of a variable species. Another contrastingly marked form, with tawny dorsum and blackish tegminal bands, is known from 2 rather small females (13.6–14.5 mm) from Ecuador: Rio Panlenque, 30 July–10 Aug. 1974 (J. Dryan) in FMC. The discovery of males may show that this is an additional species. The specimens taken in Cuba might be still another unrecognized species, but there is a distinct possibility that these represent an introduction of some mainland form.
description: Published as part of Hamilton, Andrew, 2012, Revision of Neotropical aphrophorine spittlebugs, part 1: Ptyelini (Hemiptera, Cercopoidea), pp. 41-59 in Zootaxa 3497 on pages 52-53, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.282460