Chrysolasia, Moulds, 2003

Moulds, M. S., 2003, An Appraisal of the Cicadas of the Genus Abricta Stål and Allied Genera (Hemiptera: Auchenorrhyncha: Cicadidae), Records of the Australian Museum 55, pp. 245-304 : 260-262

Genus Chrysolasia n.gen.

Type species: Tibicen guatemalenus Distant, 1883 .

Included species: guatemalena (Distant) .

Etymology. From the Greek chrysos meaning gold and lasios meaning hairy, woolly or shaggy and pertaining to the golden body hairs of the type species, guatemalena .

Diagnosis. Postclypeus only slightly produced. Rostrum reaching to about bases of hind coxae. Width of head including eyes greater than anterior pronotum and nearly equal to mesonotum; width of male abdomen greater than width of thorax. Pronotal collar narrow with lateral angles ampliate and rounded; rudimentary and essentially confluent with adjoining sclerites anterior of lateral angles. Wings hyaline but with a very weak translucent brown tint. Fore wing without infuscations; costal margin moderately ampliate to node, the maximum dilation slightly less than width of costal vein, nodal line intersection near midpoint of ulnar cell; basal cell with translucent pigmentation. Hind wing plaga broad along much of vein 3A plus inner margin of anal lobe, narrower along vein 2A; light infuscation on wing margin at distal end of 2A, mostly on margin of anal lobe. Tymbals with 8 long ribs evenly spaced but slightly converging dorsally; basal plate small ( Fig. 21). Male opercula linear, tending tear-drop in shape, weakly angled inwards before midpoint; nearly flat; just meeting and extending laterally and distally a little beyond tympanal cavities. Body bearing golden pubescence, possibly extensive on newly emerged individuals.

Male genitalia ( Figs. 35, 36) with pygofer dorsal beak large, long and pointed; upper pygofer lobes moderately developed, pointed, undivided; pygofer basal lobes divided, outer lobe broad and rounded, inner secondary lobe pointed in lateral view. Uncal lobes broad, disc-like, tending towards meeting but never doing so, each terminating in a thick-set, down-turned blunt projection; uncal lateral processes absent. Aedeagus in lateral view gently curved for most of its length, basal plate a fused pair of nearly circular discs; conjunctival claws directed laterally and slightly ventrally, claw-like with no associated sclerotization, long and slender, strongly recurved, length about equal to diameter of theca, apex simple and pointed; flabellum and palearis absent.

Female. Unknown.

Distinguishing features. Within the Abricta complex of genera, golden abdominal pubescence is found only in this monotypic genus, the species of all other genera having silver pubescence. It is also the only genus in which the apex of the upper pygofer lobes are straight and pointed, in which the nodal line intersection lies near midpoint of ulnar cell and only 8 tymbal ridges. Although the broad, disclike uncal lobes are found also in Abricta , Abroma and Monomatapa , Chrysolasia differs in its more developed conjunctival claws which are directed laterally rather than ventrally, strongly recurved and are nearly equal in length to width of theca rather than much shorter. Other features of Chrysolasia are the broad male abdomen that is clearly wider than the thorax, and the linear and somewhat teardrop shaped male opercula, both attributes shared only with Monomatapa . Chrysolasia differs from Monomatapa (in addition to the autapomorphies of Chrysolasia mentioned above) by having male upper pygofer lobes of moderate proportions compared to exceedingly small upper lobes in Monomatapa , well-developed secondary basal lobes which are absent in Monomatapa , and uncal lobes that are simply pointed whereas those of Monomatapa are double pointed (compare Figs. 35, 36 with 33, 34).

Distribution. Recorded from Guatemala but this locality requires confirmation (see discussion of distribution under C. quatemalena ).