Scaralis (Alphinoides) semilimpida ( Walker, 1851 ) Yanega & Goemans & Dam & Gómez-Marco & Hoddle, 2024

Yanega, Douglas, Goemans, Geert, Dam, Matthew Van, Gómez-Marco, Francesc & Hoddle, Mark, 2024, Description of a new genus of North and Central American planthoppers (Hemiptera: Fulgoridae) with fourteen new species, Zootaxa 5443 (1), pp. 1-53 : 48

Scaralis (Alphinoides) semilimpida ( Walker, 1851) , stat. nov.

( Figs 4 , 7 )

Type material. Holotype, ( BMNH): BRAZIL: Amazonas.

Additional material. BRAZIL: Amazonas; additional specimen figured by Porion (1994), Plate 4, Fig. 58 ; FRENCH GUIANA: no data, 1F ( UCRC).

Notes. This species has the abdomen, and the base of the hindwings, red, unlike the other Alphinoides species, or any other species of Scaralis we have examined. There is also a slightly paler band in the middle of the pigmented region of the forewing, rather than having the entire basal area dark with contrasting veins, as in the other Alphinoides examined. In the molecular analysis by Urban & Cryan, 2009, semilimpida was placed as sister taxon to Matacosa miscella , and more distantly related to Scaralina (as “ Alphina glauca ”). The specimen from French Guiana ( Fig. 7 ) has the dark thoracic markings much reduced compared to the holotype, but we assume this indicates intraspecific variation rather than a different taxon.

Figures

FIGURE 7. Antenna of Scaralis (Alphinoides) nr. semilimpida; arista not visible.

FIGURES 4–5. Versteifung, underside of left forewing, viewed from posteroventral angle in both photos, so wing base is to the left; (4) Scaralis (Alphinoides) semilimpida; (5) Scaralina obrienae.

FIGURES 57–62. Forewings of Scaralina species. (57) S. aethrinsula; (58) S. chapina; (59) S. cristata; (60) S. durango; (61) S. gigantea; (62) S. hawksi.