Monobazus brunnescens VIRAKTAMATH & WEBB & YESHWANTH 2025, comb. 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
Monobazus
Monobazus brunnescens

description: Monobazus brunnescens (Pruthi) comb. nov.
Figs 3O–R, 9 EF, 32A–G
Thamnotettix brunnescens Pruthi, 1936: 115–116, Pl. VIII figs 16, 16a, text fig. 128.
Diagnosis. Among the species of Monobazus this can be readily recognized by its uniform yellowish or greenish yellow (in life) color, its elongate and slender aedeagus with the shaft abruptly anteriorly curved near the apex at the point of origin of the ventral processes.
Description. Uniformly greenish yellow (in life) or yellow or yellowish brown without any darker spots, in a few specimens, basal triangles of the mesonotum slightly darker.
Head as wide as or wider than pronotum. Crown broadly rounded in front, half as long as interocular distance. Pronotum 1.8–2.0× as wide as long.
Male genitalia. Pygofer slightly longer than wide in lateral view, dorsal margin concave, posterodorsal angle conical, posterior margin slightly concave with a short horn-like process at midlength, not attaining dorsal margin. Subgenital plate with both macrosetae, and long hair-like setae, about 4.5× as long as wide at base. Style apophysis comparatively slender, slightly curved laterally. Connective with stem as long as arms. Aedeagus slender, shaft elongate, cylindrical, abruptly curved anteriorly near apex, where a pair of ventral processes arise and exceeding length of shaft; gonopore apical.
Measurements. Male 4.7–5.0 mm long, 1.2–1.3 mm wide across eyes and 1.2 mm wide across posterolateral angels of pronotum. Female 5.3–5.7 mm long, 1.4 mm wide across eyes and 1.3–1.4 mm wide across posterolateral angles of pronotum.
Material examined. HOLOTYPE ♂ Mahanandi, foot of Nallamalai Hills (W) sta 72. At light, S. India, 12.viii.[19]29, H.S. Pruthi, No. 5405/H7 (ZSI).Other material. Karnataka: 5 ♂, 8 ♀, Dharwar, Oct.1967, Viraktamath, 3 ♂, Dharwar, July 1970, Viraktamath, 2 ♂, 2 ♀, Dharwar, 30.viii.1972, C.A. Viraktamath; 1 ♀, Bidadi, 28.x.1976, B. Mallik; 1 ♂, Hagari, 30.xi.1981, ARV Kumar; 4♂, 12f, Belgaum, 30.viii.1973, C.A. Viraktamath; Andhra Pradesh: Guvvluchervu, 24.x.2008, Kalleshwaraswamy, S. Murthy (NBAIR, NPC, UASB).
Remarks. This species was described from the holotype, allotype and 10 paratypes. The holotype was recorded with the following data: “Mahanandi (800 ft.) foot of Nallamalai Hills, South India; 12.viii.29 (Coll. H.S. Pruthi). In the Indian Museum (No. 5405/ H7)”. The allotype was recorded with the same data except “Prema (800 ft.), 12– 14.viii.29 “No. 5406/H7)” and the paratypes: “In the Indian museum from the Nallamalai Hills”. The illustrations of habitus and male genitalia given by Pruthi (1936) are not very accurate. The holotype male is uniformly yellow in color without any dark or brown markings. Pruthi also did not illustrate the curved apex of the aedeagal shaft which is often very transparent.
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 page 28, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5567.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/14703735