Austroagallia sinuata (Mulsant & Rey)

C. A. Viraktamath, 2011, Revision of the Oriental and Australian Agalliini (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae: Megophthalminae) 2844, Zootaxa 2844, pp. 1-118 : 34-37

Austroagallia sinuata (Mulsant & Rey)

Figs 24, 49–51, 156–158.

Bythoscopus sinuatus Mulsant and Rey 1855: 222 [Type not examined].

Agallia quadrisignata Flor, 1861: 557 , synonymy by Fieber 1868: 462.

Agallia homeyeri Kirschbaum, 1868:32 , synonymy by Fieber 1872: 32.

Agallia fieberi Vismara, 1878: 41 , synonymy by Löw 1885: 346.

Austroaagallia afganistanensis Kameswara Rao, Ramakrishnan and Ghai 1979: 655–656 . HOLOTYPE ♂, AFGHANISTAN [NPC, examined], synonymized by Viraktamath & Sohi 1980: 285.

Color. Yellowish white. Two round spots on vertex and two on posterior half of pronotum black. Darker specimens with median stripe on vertex, stripes along inner margins of eyes, brown. Face with Y-shaped stripe on upper part, submarginal stripe on frontoclypesus, facial sutures, one spot at base of antennae and another ventral to it, brown. Pronotum with anterior and median infuscations. Forewings with claval cells and corial veins brown. Tarsi chocolate brown.

Male genitalia. Dorsal margin of pygofer either straight or with median convexity, pygofer lobe rather truncate. Upper tooth of hook of pygofer process as stout as elongated hook that exceeds ventral margin of process, but twisted near midlength. Styles with inner arm slightly longer than outer arm. Aedeagus with well developed dorsal apodeme, lamellate process of aedeagus broad, concave on dorsal surface, ventral angular projection of lamellate process at same level as angular projection of dorsal lamellate process.

Female genitalia. Hind margin of seventh sternite slightly concave in middle.

Measurements: Male 3.4–3.5 mm long, 1.05–1.07 mm wide across eyes. Female 3.8–4.0 mm long, 1.2–1.25 mm wide across eyes.

Material examined. INDIA: 520 ♂, ♀, Gujarat: Somnath, S. and C.A. Viraktamath ( UASB). Himachal Pradesh : 5 ♂, 6 ♀, Kutrain (Kulu), 20.vi.1967, ex potato, A.S. Sohi; Punjab: 1 ♂, Ludhiana, 28.viii.1967, ex Medicago sativa, A.S.Sohi ( PAU) .

Remarks. A. sinuata is a widely distributed species found in the southern Palaearctic, Afrotropical and Western Oriental and Neotropical regions. It shows great variation in the structure of both the anal collar process and aedeagus. It may prove to be a species complex. A detailed study of the species throughout its range of distribution is necessary. Large populations of A. sinuata in Gujarat were found on vegetation along the sea shore dominated by Ipomoea pes-caprae (Linneaus) (Convolvulaceae) .