Vartatopa, Viraktamath, C. A., 2004

Viraktamath, C. A., 2004, A revision of the Varta­Stymphalus generic complex of the leafhopper tribe Scaphytopiini (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae) from the Old World, Zootaxa 713, pp. 1-47 : 21-22

Vartatopa gen. nov.

Type species: Vartatopa bifurcata sp. nov.

Medium sized leafhoppers, 7.0 mm long. Bluish green with red stripes on head, thorax and front wings.

Vertex triangularly produced, depressed in apical half, transition between vertex and face angular with anterior carina reflexed dorsally, 1.9 times as long as inter ocular width, 1.4 times as long as pronotum. Face concave in profile. Frontoclypeus parallel sided, clypellus slightly wider apically than at base, 0.32 times as long as frontoclypeus. Ocelli on anterior margin. Pronotum more than twice as wide as long, lateral margin carinate, posteriorly widened. Front wing about four times as long as wide, apices obliquely truncate, inner anteapical cell basally open. Arrangement of setae on hind tibia R1 21, R2 10, R3 17. Hind basitarsus with three platellae.

Male pygophore with a pair of well­developed dorsal apodemes on anterior margin, longer than height, caudally bilobed, with macrosetae on dorsal margin. Valve and subgenital plates fused to form a median plate bilobed caudally, with a sclerotized caudo­lateral process and with numerous stout setae arranged irregularly. Anal segment about as long as pygophore, segment X with a caudo­ventrally directed distally bilobed sclerotized process. Style robust, preapical lobe poorly developed, apophysis elongate, fingerlike with a median tooth, transversely rugulose. Connective articulated with aedeagus, Y­shaped, with arms in contact with each other in anterior half. Aedeagus robust, L­shaped, with welldeveloped anteriorly directed dorsal apodeme, with a pair of ventral paraphyses, gonopore subapical, on caudal margin.

Remarks: The genus resembles some species of Xenovarta but differs in the male genitalia in having strongly sclerotized process of subgenital plate and segment X and in the structure of aedeagus.

Distribution: Oriental: Indo­Australian region.