Murmurillana inaudibilis Delorme, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Delorme, Quentin
name: Mille, Christian
name: Jourdan, Hervé
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2016
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hemiptera
Cicadidae
Murmurillana
Murmurillana inaudibilis

description: Murmurillana inaudibilis Delorme sp. nov.
(Figs. 1–6)
Material examined. One holotype male (MNHN 22989) and 1 paratype male (MNHN 22990), Nouvelle- Calédonie, Province Nord, Ponérihouen, Massif de l’Aoupinié (800 m), 11/II/2015, Quentin Delorme rec, caught by net. Coll. MNHN, Paris.
Measurements (in mm, holotype and paratype): FL: 19.6–19.7, FW: 6.6–6.9, HW: 5.5–5.6, HL 1.5–1.5, BL: 14.7–15.2, PL: 2.1–2.1, PW: 4.7–4.6.
Description of male (Figs. 1–5). Head. Vertex brownish bearing short golden hairs; ocelli pink; each ocellus set on small black spot. Epicranial suture deep and brown. Compound eyes black, prominent, wider than long. Dorsal postclypeal area brownish. Supra-antennal plate brownish and hairless. Antennal flagela and pedicel black. Postclypeus brownish, slightly domed with seven transverse grooves. Anteclypeus brownish. Rostrum with labrum, mentum and labium yellowish. Apex of rostrum reaching bases of hind trochanter.
Thorax. Pronotum longer than head, brownish with variable black ornamentations and bearing short hairs. Pronotal collar brown; lateral parts thick, slightly prominent. Lateral and paramedian fissure black. Mesonotum brownish. Submedian sigilla and lateral sigilla brown, darker than mesonotum. Scutal depression brownish. Metanotum brown-greenish with long scattered silvered hairs. Cruciform elevation uniformly brownish with long golden hairs at anterior and lateral bases. Opercula separated, roundish as long as wide, whitish, bearing scattered silvered hairs on posterior margin.
Wings. Forewings hyaline; venation reddish, except apical cells and a part of ulnar cells, which are blackish; median and cubital anterior vein fused on 1 mm at their bases. Hindwings venation blackish, except cubitus anterior vein which is reddish; vannus hyaline.
Legs. Uniformly brownish. On forelegs, coxa brownish with median longitudinal black line on medial sides. Trochanters brownish with blackish spot on interior side. Femurs brownish. On mid legs, coxa yellowish with wide brown spot on anteriomedian side; trochanter, femur, tibia and tarsus entirely yellowish. Hind legs similar to mid legs.
Abdomen. Slim and tapered, covered by scattered golden hairs. Tergites 1 to 7 mostly brown with diffused and not well defined green posterior margin, tergite 8 entirely brown.
Genitalia. Pygofer brownish. Gonopore sharp and perpendicular to pseudoparamere. Clasper parallel, apically straight and roundish.
Song pattern. Male calling song (Fig. 6) composed of only one type of sequence, formed by a regular succession of echemes emitted at a rate of 39 to 41 per second. Calling song covers frequencies from 14 to 27 kHz with main energy between 17 and 25 kHz and a maximum of energy at 23 kHz.
Distribution. East coast of “Grande Terre”. Probably endemic to Aoupinié Massif (Fig. 12).
Derivation of name. From Latin, meaning “inaudible”, because of the high frequency of the male calling song.
Habitat and ecology. Males were found in dense Niaouli shrub (Melaleuca quinquenervia, Myrtaceae) mixed with dense fern cover (Pteridium sp., Dennstaedtiaceae). Male calls from branches located at the tops of trees. It appears not to be gregarious and seems to be strictly diurnal and heliophilous. Because of the rarity of this cicada during our surveys and the difficulty of marking individuals, no more observation was accomplished.
description: Published as part of Delorme, Quentin, Mille, Christian & Jourdan, Hervé, 2016, Description of a new genus and two new species of high frequency cicada from New Caledonia (Insecta: Hemiptera, Cicadoidea, Cicadidae), pp. 563-576 in Zootaxa 4126 (4) on pages 567-569, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4126.4.7, http://zenodo.org/record/255831