Orthorapha (Lepyronoxia) irregularis Hamilton, 2013, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Andrew Hamilton, K. G.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2013
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hemiptera
Aphrophoridae
Orthorapha
Orthorapha irregularis

description: Orthorapha (Lepyronoxia) irregularis sp. nov.
Etymology. irregularis (adjective), from the Latin, meaning “not even.”
Diagnosis. Resembling O. bufo (Fig. 35 M), but flatter, with a shorter head and more contrasting markings (Fig. 35 A).
Description. Tawny to brown, in paler specimen (type) pronotum with median line and posterior half dark brown, as is scutellum; tegmina more or less greenish behind first vein (R), irregularly mottled with dark brown spots (Fig. 35 A) or brown with a few pale spots; venter dark brown except for T-shaped (or tridentate) yellowish mark on apex of frons (Fig. 34 A) and tawny joints of legs (in palest specimens trochanters entirely pale). Head produced but much shorter than median length of pronotum; frons strongly inflated, nearly quadrangular in profile; crown declivous, frons not as low as clypellus at maximum expansion; head much narrower than pronotum; lateral margins of pronotum somewhat shorter than eye; tegmina finely pitted, 2 × as long as broad, veins distinctly raised to carinate throughout; hind wings as in Orthorapha concinna (Fig. 2 D). Male unknown. Length: female 9.3–9.5 mm. Width across across head 2.7–2.8 mm; across pronotum 3.1–3.3 mm.
Type. Holotype female, BRAZIL: S [aõ] Paulo —S. Jose Barreiro, Serra Bocaina 1960m [ASL], Nov. 1970 (M. Alvarenga) BM 1971-165. Paratypes: 2 females, Minas Gerais —Delfim Moreira 1100m [ASL], Feb. 1972 (F.M. Oliveira) BM 1972-541. All types in BMNH.
Orthorapha (Lepyronoxia) obliqua (Jacobi), comb.nov.
Lepyronia obliqua Jacobi, 1921: 124.
Diagnosis. Sexually dimorphic: male with contrasting dark face (Fig. 35 D) and usual development of wings and body proportions; presumptive female unmarked, without ocelli and hind wings, with head distinctly narrower than pronotum, and lateral margins of pronotum as long as eye (these are usually correlated characters in cases of brachyptery). The tegminal pattern of the male is distinctive in this genus, somewhat resembling that of Lepyronia.
Description. Male brown, paler ventrally except marked with blackish brown across frons, gena, pleura and bands across fore femora; upper quarter of frons with narrow, V-shaped yellow line, head above this, and 2 oblique bands across posterior two-thirds of each tegmen olive green; basad of midlength of tegmen a bold, yellow, oblique band directed towards (but not reaching) hind angles of pronotum; intervening areas of tegmen blackish, with small yellow dash on costa before tip and a white spot on disc above it (Fig. 35 D). Head strongly produced, as long as pronotum; frons scarcely inflated, nearly pointed at apex; crown weakly declivous, face receding in profile, frons not as low as clypellus at maximum expansion; head narrower than pronotum; lateral margins of pronotum much shorter than eye; tegmina shiny and pitted, 1.8 × as long as broad, veins weakly raised, most strongly so just before tips, as in Balsania; hind wings with second vein (M) sinuate, crossvein m-cu short and straight, fold in fork of Cu not reaching midlength of wing, costal margin with 6 spines (Fig. 2 C). Theca shaft lamellate, widest at midlength, weakly tapered on upper half, posterior margin membranous, tip vesicate (as in Fig. 17 A). Length: 5.7 mm. Width across head: 2.1 mm.
Female brown, paler on face and fore coxae; tegmina olive brown, marked with irregular whitish dashes extending across clavus from scutellum nearly to apex of reddish brown costal plaque, and with darker brown Vshaped marks (as in Lepyronia) bordering whitish marks and extending transversely across anteapical cells. Head strongly produced, frons scarcely inflated, nearly pointed at apex; crown strongly declivous, as in subgenus Orthorapha but with face horizontal, frons scarcely lower than clypellus at maximum expansion; tegmina evenly convex (except at costal plaque), without claval suture or raised veins, in outline similar to that of other Lepyronoxia spp.; hind wings absent. Length: 6.6 mm.
Type. Holotype male, BRAZIL: Rio Grande do Sul (Staudinger v.); in SMFT.
Additional material. One brachypterous female, tentatively associated with male, from BRAZIL: Rio Grande do Sul —Bon Jesus, 8 Dec. 1954 (O.R. Camargo); in UPRM.
Remarks. The preapical constriction and subsequent enlargement of the stylar tip is similar to that of O. obscurata, but its tapering and curvature is more abrupt; the stout, lamellate theca resembles that of O. bufo, but is shorter. Its relatively smooth, shiny tegmina with obscure venation allies it to subgenus Balsania, but the entirely dark male face is characteristic of subgenus Lepyronoxia, of which it may be a basal lineage.
Orthorapha (Lepyronoxia) obscurata (Amyot & Serville), comb.nov.
Lepyronia obscurata Amyot & Serville, 1843: 567. Balsa obscurata: Stål, 1866b: 384.
Balsana obscurata: Metcalf, 1952: 228.
Diagnosis. Resembling O. (Balsania) concinna (Fig. 33 G), but larger, dorsum mostly dark brown to black; also similar to O. subfasciata (Amyot & Serville) (Fig. 35 K) but smaller, with a shorter, flatter head and a tubular theca shaft.
Description. Entirely dark except for pale trochanters, marked with pale line across upper margin of frons connecting coronal margins across antennal ledges (in females forming a single continuous line, in males broken at apex of head and surmounted by small pale dot at tip of crown; tegmen usually with pale veins and often also a large, ivory to pale greenish blotch on basal third of costa (Fig. 35 L). Head strongly produced, longer than median length of pronotum; frons weakly inflated, bluntly angled at apex; crown weakly declivous, face receding in profile, frons not as low as clypellus at maximum expansion; head slightly narrower than pronotum; lateral margins of pronotum somewhat shorter than eye; tegmina rastrate, somewhat shiny, veins weakly raised, most strongly so just before tips, 1.7 × as long as wide; hind wings as in Orthorapha concinna (Fig. 2 D). Theca shaft tubular, parallel-margined past midlength, tapered on upper third, posterior margin membranous, tip truncate (Fig. 8 A–B). Length: male 7.8–8.3 mm, female 7.7–7.9 mm. Width across head: male 2.8–3.2 mm, female 2.7–3.1 mm, across pronotum 2.9–3.2 mm.
Type. Data and location of type unknown. The original figure gives only a rough impression of the insect, disagreeing with the description as follows: length shown as 9 mm (not “ 0,010 m ”), pronotum distinctly wider than head (“tête à peu près aussi large que le prothorax”) and tegmina robust but not strongly convex (“élytres bombées, en ovale court et en forme de coquille.”) The overall combination of description and size given in the figure, but not in the text, agree with the largest and darkest Lepyronoxia known to me.
Additional Material. BRAZIL: 3 males, 3 females from: R [io de] J [aneiro]—Vale da Revolta, Teresópolis, 11 Jan. 1990 (L.B.N. Coelho), in UFRJ and CNCI; 3 males from: São Paulo: Boraceia, 16–18 Nov. 1970 (J. & M. Sedlacek), and Botanical Garden, 13 Nov. 1971 (J. & M. Sedlacek), in BPBM.
Remarks. Males have white or greenish costal spots (Fig. 35 L) and one such specimen barcoded quite differently from an unmarked, associated female from Teresópolis, indicating that this taxon probably represents a species complex. More specimens and biological information may be needed to correctly resolve the identities of these insects.
description: Published as part of Andrew Hamilton, K. G., 2013, Revision of Neotropical aphrophorine spittlebugs, part 2: tribe Orthoraphini (Hemiptera, Cercopoidea), pp. 201-225 in Zootaxa 3710 (3) on pages 220-222, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3710.3.1, http://zenodo.org/record/217113