Tambila majuscula
Creators: name: Shobharani, M.
name: C. A. Viraktamath
name: Webb, M. D.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2018
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hemiptera
Cicadellidae
Tambila
Tambila majuscula

description: Tambila majuscula (Distant)
Figs 12–20, 23–27, 38–79.
Penthimia majuscula Distant 1918: 18.
Tambila majuscula (Distant), Shobharani, Viraktamath & Webb 2018.
Tambila gravelyi Distant 1918: 23 –24. Syn. nov.
Colour variable from pale yellowish to reddish brown to dark brown with or without pale markings (Figs 12–20).
Male genitalia. Xth segment greatly produced anteriorly (Fig. 53) with ventral surface concave (Fig. 54). Subgenital plate with rounded apex, lateral margin sinuate with stout setae at caudal 0.33, with a tuft of setae on outer margin apically (Figs 55–56). Style with well developed preapical lobe, apical apophysis finger like, curved laterally with transversely rugose surface. Connective long with arms shorter than stem. Aedeagus simple, dorsal apodeme and preatrium short, shaft slightly dorso anteriorly curved, slightly narrowed caudally, basal plate like process broadly conically rounded; gonopore large, apical, on ventral margin.
Female genitalia. Seventh sternite longer medially than sixth, broad, three times as wide as long medially, lateral angles of posterior margin rounded, posterior margin medially produced with median concavity, lateral margins of concavity rounded, area adjacent to median projection slightly concave, median projection slightly longer than lateral rounded angles.
Measurement Male 5.6–5.8 mm long, head 2.3–2.4 mm wide across eyes, 2.6–2.7 mm wide across hind margin of pronotum. Female 6.2 mm long, head 2.4 mm wide across eyes and 2.7 mm wide across pronotum.
Material examined. INDIA: Karnataka: Holotype ♂, ‘ Chikkaballapura, S. India, T. V. Campbell’ ‘C B 7/4, 72 9 8 ' ‘ Penthimia majuscula Dist. Type’ ‘S. India. E. A. Butler, B. M. 1915 60’ (BMNH). Lectotype ♂ (here designated), ‘ Type H. T’ ‘ Tambila gravelyi Dist. type’ ‘ Indian Mus. Medha Yanna Valley, Satara Dist. 2200 ft, 17– 23.iv.12 H. F. Gravely 2967/21’ (BMNH). Other material examined: INDIA: Karnataka: several ♂, ♀, Bangalore different dates in March, April, June September and November; 1♂, 13 Km W Bagepalli, 14.iv.1977; 1♀, Dharmastala, 22.xi.1984, S. Viraktamath; 1♀, 12 Km W Jog falls, 18.xi.1976, B. Mallik; 1♂, Jog falls, 534 m, 2.xii.1982, H.V.A. Murthy; 1 ♀, 5 Km W Koppal, 29.xi.1982, H.V.A. Murthy; 1♀, Malayamaruta hills nr Mudigere, 29.v.2005, Shobharani, M; 1♀, Mudigere, 22.v.1976, B. Mallik; 19 Km W Mudigere, 9000 m, 6.iv.1980; 1♂, Raichur, 3.xi.1988, Shashidhar; 2♂, Raichur, 12 & 8.x.1988, Shashidhar; 1♀, Yellapur, 22.ix.1973; Kerala: 1♂, 3♀, Meppadi, 690m, 18.x.1975; 2♂, 1♀, Thekkady, 26 & 27.iii.1977; Tamil Nadu: 1♀, Shambhaganur, 1800m, 18.viii.1979, Dworakowska, all collected by C.A. Viraktamath unless mentioned otherwise (UASB); 1♀, Fraserpet, Coorg, F.R.I. Sandal Insect Survey, 30.vi. ’30 (NPC); Tamil Nadu: 1♂, Alagar Kovil, Madurai Dist. S. India, 8.iii. ’36 (NPC). Tamil Nadu: Moyar Campus, 2♀, Nilgirihills (2900 ft) vi.1954, Rec. P. S. Nathan. Singara, 1♀, Nilgirihills, (3400 ft.) v 1954, Rec. P. S. Nathan (IRSNB); 1♀, Palnis (7000 ft.), Kodaikanal shola, 26.viii.1921, Fletcher (NPC).
Remarks. Tambila majuscula was described from a single specimen (referred to in Distant’s description as the ‘unique carded specimen’) with the following data: ‘South India; Chikkaballapura (T.V. Campbell)’. T. gravelyi was described from an unknown number of specimens (syntypic) with the following data: ‘ Bombay Pres., Sutara Distr.: Yenna Valley, Medha (F.H. Gravely)’. T. majuscula resembles T. greeni in male genitalia characters but differs in having a stouter style apophysis and the basal plate like process broadly conically rounded (compared to more angular in T. greeni. The apical apophysis of the style is more slender in the specimens from Thekkady compared, for example to the type of T. gravelyi from Yenna Valley, Satara. Colouration is also variable sometimes with dark brown markings on the head and the pronotum forming well defined patches. The mesonotum may or may not be pale or yellow and in some specimens the mesonotum has the same colour as the rest of the thorax. Some specimens have been collected from Jack fruit tree (Artocarrpus heterophyllus) and sandal tree (Santalum album).
description: Published as part of Shobharani, M., C. A. Viraktamath & Webb, M. D., 2018, Revision of the penthimiine leafhopper genus Tambila Distant (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae: Deltocephalinae) of the Indian subcontinent, pp. 501-515 in Zootaxa 4514 (4) on page 505, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4514.4.4, http://zenodo.org/record/2609336