Aprivesa Melichar, 1923

Bu, Cui-Ping & Liang, Ai-Ping, 2011, First Record of the Genus Aprivesa Melichar (Hemiptera: Fulgoromorpha) from South India, with Description of One New Species, ZooKeys 81, pp. 1-12 : 3-5

Genus Aprivesa Melichar, 1923

Aprivesa Melichar 1923: 144. Type species. Privesa exuta Melichar 1898b, designated by Melichar 1923: 144.

Redescription.

General colour ochraceous or fuscous. Vertex and most part of frons usually pale brown or dark brown. Pronotum brown. Mesonotum usually fuscous. Legs pale yellow or brown. Forewing brown to fuscous. Hindwing hyaline, pale brown.

Head (Figs 9-12, see Fletcher 2008: 112, Figs 15-17) large. Vertex broad and narrow, nearly rectangular in outline; distinctly separated from the frons by a transverse carina, lateral margins ridged and nearly parallel, posterior margin archedly concave; shorter than pronotum at midline; disk planar with some faint wrinkles. Frons oblique, broader than long, with central, sublateral and lateral carinae; lateral margins carinate and strongly elevated, with a slight outward bulge at mid-length, converging below level of antennae to apex. Clypeus narrower than frons, convex medially, shallowly inserted, lateral marginal areas depressed, with central longitudinal carina. Rostrum with subapical segment just surpassing meso-trochanters, apical segment attaining post-trochanters. Eyes oval. Ocelli small, situated between eye and base of antennae. Antennae short, scape ring-liked; pedicel subglobose, about 2 times as long as scape; flagellum setaceous, basely expanded.

Pronotum (Figs 9-11) narrow, with median longitudinal carina, punctuated beside central carina; disk slightly sloping laterally, hind margin centrally distinctly arched anteriorly. Mesonotum (Figs 9-11) large, triangular and convex, with 3 carinae: central carina straight; lateral carinae inwardly and anteriorly curved, nearly parallel on anterior margin, each bifurcating outwardly near middle in a straight longitudinal carina. Forewing (Figs 9-10, 13, see Fletcher 2008: 110-112, Figs 13-15;) quadrate, with costal and sutural margins subparallel; apical margin convex, shorter than claval suture; precostal area at middle broader than costal cell, with transverse veinlets dense; three veins emanating from basal cell, R and Sc nearly parallel, the radial veins originating from a common point on the basal cell; M leaving basal cell as a single short stem but forking in more than length of basal cell; Cu1 with four or five branches just before the apical margin; subapical line complete; claval veins uniting near middle of clavus, common claval vein entering commissural margin, clavus with many transverse veinlets. Hindwing (Figs 10, 14, see Fletcher 2008: 108, Fig. 2) small, anterior margin strongly sinuate; Sc short, unforked, R with three or four branches, M with two or three branches, Cu1 with more than four branches; transverse veinlets including only R-M and M-Cu. Legs moderately long; hind tibiae with 2 lateral black-tipped spines.

Female and male genitalia. See description of Aprivesa unimaculata sp. n. below.

Biology.

As with many ricaniid planthopper species, no biological data are currently available for species of Aprivesa , except that Aprivesa exuta was collected on Melaleuca quinquenervia ( Fletcher 2008).

Distribution.

Australia, India.

Remarks.

Aprivesa is distinguished from other genera in Ricaniidae by the shape of frons and wing, the wing venation, and the minutiae of the male genitalia.

Species of Aprivesa are similar to those of Privesa Stål. But Aprivesa can be separated from Privesa by the lateral margins of the frons with a slight outward bulge below the antennae and the forewing with two radial veins originating from a common point on the basal cell ( Fletcher 2008). In addition, the genus Privesa is distributed primarily in the Afrotropical region. Although the genus Aprivesa was an Australian endemic before, the finding of the new species in south India greatly extends the range of the genus Aprivesa . The similar distribution pattern is seen in another ricaniid genus Scolypopa . Most of Scolypopa species are found in the Australian region; but three distinct species of Scolypopa are distributed in the Indo-Malayan region ( Metcalf 1955, Fletcher 1979a, b, 2008).

Key to species of genus Aprivesa

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