Herrera Distant, 1905b

SANBORN, ALLEN F., 2020, Two new species of Neotropical cicadas (Hemiptera: Cicadidae: Cicadettinae) from southeastern Brazi, Journal of Insect Biodiversity 19 (1), pp. 14-23 : 18

Genus Herrera Distant, 1905b

Herrera Distant 1905b: 486 .

Type species. Cicada marginella Walker 1858: 21 . (Orizaba, Vera Cruz, Mexico)

Remarks. Distant (1905b) distinguished species of the genus using the following characters: a head that is about as wide as the mesonotum with the vertex that is longer than the frons, a pronotum that is about as long as the mesonotum, the length of the abdomen that is about as long as the distance from the apex of the postclypeus to the posterior of the cruciform elevation, males possess small opercula, fore femora exhibit distinct spines, and a fore wing width that is slightly more than half the fore wing length. With the continued addition of species to the genus, the ratio of fore wing width to length has been shown to be as little as one-third in some species and there is a group of species, including the new species, whose opercula can cover the tympanal cavity. The diversity of the genus was more than doubled recently with the addition of multiple new species and the reassignment of several other species to the genus ( Sanborn 2019 a, 2019b, 2020 a, 2020b, 2020c, 2020d).

Distribution. The range of genus was restricted to Central America until Sanborn & Heath (2014) described new species from Argentina. The range has been expanded recently to include Bolivia, Brazil, French Guiana, Peru and Venezuela ( Sanborn 2019 a, 2019b, 2020 a, 2020b). The genus has now been recorded from Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Costa Rica, Cuba, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Peru and Venezuela ( Metcalf 1963; Sanborn 2013, 2014, 2019 a, 2019b, 2020 a, 2020b; Sanborn & Heath 2014) with recent range expansions to include Ecuador ( Sanborn 2020c) and Trinidad ( Sanborn 2020d). These specimens expand the range eastward from the currently known distribution.