Paramelanetettix Hu & Wei & Xing 2024, gen. nov.
Creators: name: Hu, Shangmi
name: Wei, Xingtao
name: Xing, Jichun
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2024
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hemiptera
Cicadellidae
Paramelanetettix

description: Paramelanetettix gen. nov.
Type species: Paramelanetettix expansivus sp. nov.
Description. Body yellowish-brown. Eyes large and dark brown, ocelli milky white. Pronotum fuscous. Face yellowish. Forewings brownish, with scattered unpigmented areas. Head narrower than pronotum. Frontoclypeus distinctly longer than wide, anteclypeus expanded apically.
Pronotum with anterior margin roundly produced and posterior margin concave, lateral margin carinate and shorter than eye. Scutellum triangular, shorter than length of pronotum, with transverse suture depressed. Forewing with four apical cells and three subapical cells, vein R with 4 or more branches and the outer anteapical cell is long and either truncate or tapered distally, without a distinct petiole. Fore femur with 2 dorsoapical setae, row AM with 1 stout seta, row IC with 13 setae, and row AV with several short setae in basal half. Fore tibia with 3 macrosetae in row AD and numerous macrosetae in row AV. Hind femur broadened distally and slightly bowed, apical setal formula 2+2+1. Hind tibia flattened and nearly straight, row PD with 19 macrosetae decreasing in length toward base; row AD with approximately 10 long stout setae and 1–4 shorter stout setae between each long seta; metabasitarsomere with four platellae and two setae on apical transverse row.
Male genitalia. Male pygofer side approximately rectangular, longer than height, with stout setae over dorsoposterior area and posteroventral process grown in dorsal inner surface. Valve subtriangular. Subgenital plate narrow and long, with few macrosetae along lateral margin. Connective Y-shaped, articulating with aedeagus, stem much shorter than arms. Style relatively narrow. Aedeagus with shaft short, with a pair of lateral processes arising subbasally on shaft and extending forwards slightly parallel to shaft and exceed to its apex. Paraphyses parallel to shaft to near its apex, shorter than height of aedeagus, and the presence of paired processes articulated to the connective and near the base of the aedeagus, gonopore apical.
Remarks. Paramelanetettix gen. nov. resembles some species of the genus Scaphoideus (e.g., S. transvittatus) externally in general appearance, but can be distinguished from the latter by the aedeagus closely articulated with the connective and the pygofer with a process on the dorsal inner surface. The new genus is also similar to Melanetettix Knight & Fletcher, 2007 (e.g., M. mengyangensis see Figs. 19–29) in having the aedeagus with a pair of lateral processes arising subbasally on the shaft and a posteroventral process on the pygofer side, but Melanetettix can be distinguished from the new genus by the distinctive external coloration, the forewing with only 3 branches of vein R, and the outer anteapical cell very short and with a distal petiole. Paramelanetettix gen. nov. is placed in Scaphoideini based on the above mentioned similarities to other genera included in the tribe and agreement with the tribal diagnosis of Zahniser & Dietrich (2013).
Etymology. The genus name refers to similarity to the genus Melanetettix.
Distribution. Oriental Region (China).
description: Published as part of Hu, Shangmi, Wei, Xingtao & Xing, Jichun, 2024, A new Scaphoideini leafhopper genus from China (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae: Deltocephalinae), pp. 281-287 in Zootaxa 5446 (2) on pages 281-285, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5446.2.10, http://zenodo.org/record/11101491