Doratura paludosa Melichar. A 1897
Creators: name: Bückle, Christoph
name: Guglielmino, Adalgisa
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2022
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hemiptera
Cicadellidae
Doratura
Doratura paludosa

description: Doratura paludosa Melichar, 1897
(Figs 1B, C; 20A, B; 21A, B, D, E; 23A–C; 24A–C, I, K)
Doratura paludosa Melichar, 1897: 70
Doratura veneta Dlabola, 1959: 154 syn. nov.
Note. After examination of the type material (two males, two females) of D. paludosa, deposited at the Moravian Museum in Brno, and many additional specimens from different localities in Italy, we give a redescription of this species including its genital morphology:
Description. Coloration (Figs 21A, B). Males with the general characters described for the genus Doratura (see above). Dark specimens with indistinctly delimited spot in posterior half of vertex, dark markings in the middle of pronotum and scutellum often forming ± continuous sagittal band from vertex tip to scutellum. Wings without green metallic shine, with light veins and ± hyaline cells, in dark specimens cells partly or completely fuscous. Abdomen light with eight longitudinal bands, central ones very close to each other, divided by noticeably light middle line, middle bands consisting of small transverse spots on each tergite, lateral ones irregular, often interrupted near hind border of tergites; in light specimens bands almost lacking, reduced to rows of isolated small spots. Females with same pattern of coloration as males, but generally distinctly lighter, often with largely reduced markings.
Measurements. Males: Total body length: 3.10–3.50 mm; width over wings: 1.08–1.37 mm; width of head: 1.03–1.18 mm; length of vertex: 0.43–0.51 mm; length of forewings from shoulder to apex: 0.72–1.01 mm; length of hind tibia: 1.60–1.82 mm.
Females: Total body length: 4.00– 4.60 mm; width over wings: 1.27–1.44 mm; width of head: 1.15–1.23 mm; length of vertex: 0.45–0.51 mm; length of forewings from shoulder to apex: 0.91–1.06 mm; length of hind tibia: 1.78–1.87 mm.
Male genitalia. Aedeagus shaft (Figs 23A–C) with ventral area in the middle ± elevated, crest-shaped, entire surface until tip covered by robust spinules except for short basal slightly microsculptured and shiny area; in lateral view (Figs 23A, B) slender, somewhat widening from base to mid-length, strongly narrowing in its distal half until apex, very thin in its apical fifth, with hook-shaped tip and dorsal border basally almost straight, only in apical region curved dorsad; in ventral view (Fig. 23C) basally distinctly narrowed in apical direction, in the middle of its distal half slightly widened, with apical fourth evenly narrowing; socle well developed, dorso-ventral extension at base ± as maximum width of aedeagus in lateral view, fold between shaft and socle straight, almost parallel to dorsal border of shaft. Styles (Figs 24A–C) rather short, almost evenly curved, with denticle distal of mid-length, evenly narrowing from denticle to apex, slightly widening from denticle towards base. Connective (Figs 1B, C) elongate, comparatively long, branched sector longer than basal one. Pygofer with about 7–10 macrosetae near hind margin, concentrated in dorsal area near central black spot. Genital plates (Figs 24I, K) with ± indistinct sutural angle, posterior margin obliquely running in latero-caudal direction until distinct exterior angle, lateral margin sinuate.
Female genitalia. Pregenital sternite (Figs 20A, B) with lateral margin slightly converging in caudal direction, obtuse posterior angles, straight or slightly concave hind margin and small, sometimes very small, sometimes lacking notch in the middle of hind margin. Ovipositor in lateral view protruding beyond posterior angle of pygofer 1/4—1/3 of its length from hind margin of pregenital sternite to ovipositor tip.
Fifth instar (Figs 21D, E). Pro-, meso-, metanotum, and wingpads irregularly brown, lateral parts light; abdomen with narrow light middle line, laterad increasingly brown, with exterior portion of tergites II–V light. Light specimens occur very often, with strongly reduced and indistinct markings and ± homogeneous brownish yellow coloration.
Diagnosis. The species is closely related to D. butzele and D. iblea, based on a similar shape of styles, aedeagus and female genital sternite. Main differences to the other two species lay above all in the aedeagus morphology (shape of ventral margin, presence of spinules on the apical portion), and in the presence and/or shape of the median notch on the hind margin of the female pregenital sternite (see below in the diagnosis of D. butzele).
Distribution (Fig. 58). Confirmed records only from Italy: We checked material from Friuli-Venezia Giulia (type locality), Veneto, Emilia-Romagna, Tuscany, Umbria, Latium, Abruzzo, Sardinia.
The record for Ukraine (Odessa) by Dlabola (1958), is obviously erroneous. In his collection deposited in MNHN there are two female specimens from Odessa (MNHN)EH 23448, corrected by Dlabola himself to D. salina Horváth, 1903. The records by Horváth (1903b) for Hungary (Novi), probably refer to Croatia and to D. butzele; equally, his records for Dalmatia (Arbe) and Herzegovina (Trebinje) should be referred to D. butzele, and his records for southern Austria concern localities nowadays parts of Italy (they refer probably to D. paludosa). The records for Montenegro in Radović & Pešić (2014) as D. cf. paludosa refer to D. butzele. The record by Kusnezov (1929) for Central Siberia (Buryatia) is highly doubtful and surely not based on the examination of genital characters which would be necessary for a correct identification. Records by Graeffe (1903) for Slovenia (Tolmein [Tolmin]) and Croatia (Cepichsee [a nowadays dry former lake in Istria]) refer in the first case probably, in the second case surely (we examined specimens from the Melichar collection) to D. butzele. Records for Romania (Nast, 1972) need confirmation (D. butzele?). All the specimens we checked from Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro (coll. Melichar, Dlabola, Remane, Lauterer, Bückle) belong to D. butzele and not to D. paludosa.
Ecology. Specimens in continental Italy were found between sea level and ca. 1050 m, meanwhile the collection sites in Sardinia, where D. paludosa apparently represents the only Doratura species, range from ca. 150 m up to 1400 m. In the original description of the species, Melichar indicates moist biotopes as habitat as is suggested by its name and implied by the type locality, but obviously dry places, as dry meadows and ruderal biotopes are settled by that species too.
Phenology. Adults were collected from the end of May until the beginning of September; the species is probably bivoltine and hibernates in the egg stage.
Taxonomic remark 1. In his description of D. paludosa, Melichar distinguished this species from D. stylata and D. homophyla by its minor body size, stouter body shape, longer vertex, different shape of genital segment and different ecology (preference of moist localities). Except for the shape of the genital segment these characters are not suitable for defining diagnostic characters of these three Doratura species, and indeed all other Doratura specimens of the Melichar collection in Brno identified by Melichar himself as D. paludosa proved to be other species (D. stylata, D. homophyla, and D. butzele).
Taxonomic remark 2. We studied the type material of Doratura veneta (type locality: S. Giuliano, near Venice) from the Servadei collection in Verona (male holotype; Fig. 23A) and from the Dlabola collection in Paris (one male paratype (MNHN)EH 23450). There are no significant differences to D. paludosa Melichar in general shape, size, coloration and genital morphology. Therefore, we establish the synonymy of D. veneta Dlabola, 1959 with D. paludosa Melichar, 1897 (syn. nov.).
description: Published as part of Bückle, Christoph & Guglielmino, Adalgisa, 2022, Revision of the genus Doratura Sahlberg (Hemiptera, Cicadellidae, Deltocephalinae) with particular regard to its distribution in Italy and description of four new species, pp. 1-116 in Zootaxa 5112 (1) on pages 30-33, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5112.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/6340589