Sophonia submodesta, Jat & Meshram & Dey, 2023

Jat, Monica, Meshram, Naresh M. & Dey, Debjani, 2023, A new species of leafhopper genus Sophonia (Evacanthinae: Cicadellidae: Hemiptera) from India, Zootaxa 5375 (3), pp. 439-444 : 441-443

Sophonia submodesta sp. n.

Figs 1A–J .

Diagnosis. Body yellow; scape of antenna completely concealed; hind tibial macrosetae AD 20±2, AV 12±1, PD 18±2 and femoral distal macrosetal formula is 2+1+1. Head slightly broader than pronotum. Vertex as long as wide between eyes.

Description. Crown with area near ocelli golden yellow, without median longitudinal lines, compound eyes black. Forewing hyaline with large, round, black spot in second apical cell extending partly to first apical cell, with piceous stripe along anal margin rarely reaching claval apex, apical margin suffused with brown, without appendix, distally with three oblique stripes.

Head slightly narrower than pronotum.Antennae located nearly with upper margin of eye in facial view. Crown fore margin transition with face, disc broadly concave with aberrant sculpturing anteriorly, about 1.1 times as long as wide, ocelli near lateral margins of crown, distance between eye and ocellus as diameter of ocellus. Pronotum 0.55× longer than broad and 0.81× longer than crown. Anteclypeus not exceeding ventral genal margin. Frontoclypeus broad with transverse arcuate ridges dorsally (Fig., 1D), face with distinct median carina at apex.

Male genitalia. Pygofer caudal lobe conical, with several macrosetae in posterior half and without process (Fig., 1F). Style slender, well-developed setose preapical lobe, apophysis with apex extended and beak like (Fig., 1E). Subgenital plate broader at base than at apex, exceeding pygofer, with oblique row of six macrosetae starting at basal 1/3 and ending at about distal 1/3 length, about four times as long as wide at base (Fig., 1H). Connective Y-shaped with stem more than three times as long as arms (Fig., 1G). Aedeagus with well-developed stout dorsal apodeme, without preatrium, Shaft cylindrical strongly dorsally curved near base, of uniform width in middle half length, slightly flated at apex with apical gonopore, two pairs of processes arising from dorsal apodeme at base between it and shaft, proximal pair is about 1/3 as long as shaft and lamellate, the slightly distal pair tubular, long strongly curved anteriorly and 1.5 times as long as shaft (Fig., 1 I, J).

Holotype measurements (mm): Male 5.3 mm long, 0.7 mm between compound eyes, vertex 0.7 mm long, 1.2 mm wide across hind margin of pronotum.

Type material: Holotype ♂ INDIA: Himachal Pradesh, Nauni (30º51’52”N, 77º10’10” E, altitude 1270 m), 09. ix. 2022, coll. Rajgopal, depository: NPC, ICAR-IARI, New Delhi.

Female unknown.

Etymology. Species name is based on its similarity to S. modesta .

Remarks. Sophonia submodesta sp. n. resembles Sophonia modesta in external morphology and coloration but can be distinguished by (features of S. modesta in parentheses) the conical pygofer caudal lobe, with several macrosetae in posterior half (pygofer caudal lobe rounded with a group of subapical macrosetae), the short preatrium without process (the preatrium with a pair of ventrocaudally directed processes), the style with well-developed setose preapical lobe (style with small and rounded preapical lobe), and the aedeagus basal process 1.5x as long as the aedeagal shaft (aedeagus basal process as long as shaft).

Figures

FIGURE 1. Sophonia submodesta sp. n., (male). A, dorsal habitus; B, lateral habitus; C, pronotum; D, face; E style, dorsal view; F, genital capsule and pygofer; G, connective, dorsal view; H, subgenital plate, dorsal view; I, aedeagus lateral view; J, aedeagus, dorsal view.