Neoaliturus argillaceus Mityaev, 1975

Tishechkin, Dmitri Yu., 2021, Review of the Neoaliturus fenestratus (Herrich-Schäffer, 1834) species group (Homoptera: Auchenorrhyncha: Cicadellidae: Deltocephalinae: Opsiini) from Russia, Kazakhstan, and Central Asia, Zootaxa 5039 (2), pp. 201-221 : 211-212

6. Neoaliturus argillaceus Mityaev, 1975

Figs. 29–32 , 106–117, 187–192

Description. In external appearance, as a rule, similar to N. guttulatus ( Figs. 30–32 ); only darkest males ( Fig. 29 ) are similar to N. fenestratus .

Penis shape almost the same as in N. fenestratus and N. guttulatus (Figs. 106–113), but basal part somewhat narrower in lateral view (Figs. 110–113). Pygofer appendage long, straight or smoothly curved dorsally in basal three quarters, abruptly bent upwards in apical one quarter (Figs. 114–117).

Body length (including tegmina): ♂, 2.5–3.0 mm; ♀, 2.9–3.3 mm.

Differs from other species by the shape of pygofer appendage and, partially, by narrow penis in lateral view.

Hosts. Collected from Artemisia arenaria in Saratov Oblast, from ruderal vegetation with Artemisia sp. on roadside in Rostov Oblast, and from A. glauca in Southern Tyva, Southern Siberia.

Calling signal. Signals of males from the following localities were investigated.

1. North Caucasus, Chechnya, Terskiy Mtn. Range in the environs of Grozny City , 4 and 7. VII. 1986, signals of four males were recorded at 22 and 28 oC .

2. Rostov Oblast, Oblivskiy Region, environs of Sosnovy (=Oporny) Village on the Chir River , 17. VIII. 1992, signals of one male were recorded at 28–30 oC .

3. Saratov Oblast, Krasnokutskiy Region, Dyakovka Village , 10. VII. 2004, signals of one male were recorded at 27 oC .

4. Southern Siberia, Southern Tyva, environs of Erzin Village , 11. VIII. 1989, signals of one male were recorded at 27 oC .

The calling signal is a phrase consisting of syllables following each other with a period of about 0.5– 1.5 s ( Figs. 187–189 ). Each syllable consists of a short monotonous fragment with almost indistinguishable pulses followed by two short discrete pulses ( Figs. 190–192 ); quite often these pulses have much lower amplitude than a monotonous fragment ( Fig. 190 ). Sometimes, in the first half of a phrase continuous train of low-amplitude pulses presents ( Fig. 187 ).

Distribution. Ukraine, Southern European Russia, North Caucasus including the Black Sea coast, Western and Northern Kazakhstan, steppes of Western Siberia (environs of Novosibirsk, Southern Tyva), Mongolia.

Remark. Identification of this species is based on the original description ( Mityaev, 1975) and on investigation of specimens identified by Prof. I.D. Mityaev.

Figures

FIGURES 25–43. Neoaliturus spp., dorsal view. 25–28―N. guttulatus, 29–32―N. argillaceus, 33–37―N. translucens sp. n., 38–43―N. dubovskii sp. n. 25–26, 29–31, 33–35, 38–41―males, 27–28, 32, 36–37, 42–43―females.

FIGURES 187–202. Neoaliturus spp., calling signal oscillograms. 187–192―N. argillaceus, 193–196―N. translucens sp. n., 197–202―N. dubovskii sp. n. Faster oscillograms of the parts of signals indicated as “190–192”, “195–196”, and “200–202” are given under the same numbers.