Madhyabus VIRAKTAMATH, WEBB & YESHWANTH, 2025, gen. nov.
Creators: name: VIRAKTAMATH, C. A.
name: WEBB, M. D.
name: YESHWANTH, H. M.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2025
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hemiptera
Cicadellidae
Madhyabus

description: Madhyabus gen. nov.
Type species: Madhyabus reticulatus sp. nov., here designated.
Diagnosis. Forewing with accessary cross veins, claval veins connected by cross vein. Species of Madhyabus can be differentiated from similar looking species of Monobazus and Mavromoustaca by the following combination of characters of the male genitalia: pygofer ventral process curved dorsally, exceeding the length of the pygofer, aedeagus with dorsal apodeme fairly well-developed, aedeagal shaft more or less short and stout, with lateral small triangular or lobe-like processes in the basal half, gonopore either apical or at midlength on the ventral surface. Both Mavromoustaca and Monobazus have a more or less tubular elongate aedeagal shaft with basal or ventral processes which are absent in this genus.
Description. Ochraceous with pale and brown markings on head, pronotum, and mesonotum.
Medium sized species measuring 4.0– 4.4 mm long. Head as wide as or wider than pronotum, crown surface with apical half shagreen, posterior half polished; median sulcus about 0.75 as long as crown; fore margin rounded to face. Eyes large, their outer margin in line with outer margin of crown, transverse or obliquely extended on anterolateral angles of pronotum. Ocelli prominent placed a distance less than own diameter away from eyes. Antennae longer than width of head. Face including eyes slightly wider than long; frontoclypeus broader; clypellus broad apically. Pronotum slightly convex dorsally, about 1.5–1.9× as long as crown; with lateral margins carinate, surface polished, posterior margin almost straight. Exposed mesonotum about as long as pronotum. Forewing with claval veins connected by cross vein, inner claval vein connected to claval suture by cross vein, a few to several accessary cross veins present, three anteapical and four apical cells, appendix narrow not extending beyond middle of second apical cell. Pro-tibia comparatively long and slender compared to meso-tibia; AV row of setae 15–16, conical, short, peg-like, in basal 0.66; AM row of setae represented by hair-like AM1, IC row of setae 14–15, slender hair-like. Metafemur with 2+2+1 apical macrosetae. Meta tibia with PD row macrosetae long, as long or longer than half length of fore tibia. Metabasitarsomere with 3 platellae and one stout tapered seta on either side.
Male genitalia. Pygofer without anterior apodemes, tergum short, lobes well produced posteriorly, making tergum deeply U-shaped in dorsal view, ventral process present, long, blade-like, exceeding pygofer apex, with numerous macrosetae in distal half, ventral margin convex, posterodorsal angle conically or subconically rounded. Valve transverse, anterior margin convex or angularly produced posteriorly at midlength. Subgenital plates triangular, elongate, about 2.0–3.25× as long as basal width, with marginal row of macrosetae in middle 0.33 region and numerous hair-like setae in distal 0.75. Style with well-developed subapical lobe, apophysis curved laterally, with surface transversely serrate. Connective Y-shaped, with stem about as long as arms. Aedeagus with dorsal apodeme fairly well-developed, shaft with lateral small triangular processes in basal half, gonopore either apical or at midlength on ventral surface.
Etymology. The generic name is a combination of two words, namely ‘ Madhya’ (Sanskrit, meaning central) and Banus (here abbreviated as ‘bus’), gender masculine.
Remarks. The two species included in the genus at present appear to be quite different, however, they have an arrangement of macrosetae on the subgenital plate, blade-like distally attenuated ventral pygofer processes and aedeagal shaft with short triangular or lobate processes in the proximal half in common. They differ in the shape of the aedeagus (compressed in M. reticulatus and depressed in M. biligiris), the position of the gonopore (at midlength in M. reticulatus and apical in M. biligiris) and the size of the atrium of the aedeagus (small in M. reticulatus and elongated in M. biligiris). They are placed in the genus only tentatively.
Key to species of Madhyabus gen. nov.
1. Aedeagal shaft compressed, apex in lateral view truncate (Figs 24E–G)......................... M. reticulatus sp. nov.
- Aedeagal shaft depressed, apex in lateral view beak-like (Figs 23 HI)............................. M. biligiris sp. nov.
description: Published as part of VIRAKTAMATH, C. A., WEBB, M. D. & YESHWANTH, H. M., 2025, Review of the Monobazus-group leafhopper genera (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae: Deltocephalinae) from the Indian subcontinent with description of five new genera and twenty-eight new species, pp. 1-105 in Zootaxa 5567 (1) on pages 19-20, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5567.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/14703735