Pseudosubhimalus pakistanicus, Naveed & Shah & Zhang, 2020

Naveed, Hassan, Shah, Bismillah & Zhang, Yalin, 2020, A review of the leafhopper genus Pseudosubhimalus Ghauri (Hemiptera Cicadellidae: Deltocephalinae) with description of a new species from Pakistan, Zootaxa 4790 (1), pp. 193-197 : 194-196

Pseudosubhimalus pakistanicus sp. n.

( Fig. 1 A–H)

Measurement. Length (including tegmen): 3.6-4mm.

Description. Greyish-green to pale yellow in color ( Fig. 1A ). Anterior margin of crown with pair of bi-arcuate transverse brown stripes ( Fig. 1A ). Crown, pronotum and scutellum without black or dark brown spots ( Fig. 1A ). Ocelli dark brown ( Fig. 1A ). Compound eyes grey to dark brown ( Fig. 1A ). Face greenish yellow to pale, with transverse brown strips ( Fig. 1B ). Forewings yellowish, hyaline, without markings, veins yellowish ( Fig. 1C, H ).

Head including eyes broader than pronotum, obliquely rounded dorsally in front, crown slightly wider between eyes than long medially ( Fig. 1A ), bluntly angularly produced in front of eyes; face including eyes slightly wider than long ( Fig. 1B ). Ocelli near anterior margin of crown, placed about 3x to 4x own diameter from eyes ( Fig. 1A ). Pronotum about 2x as wide as long, 1.8x longer than scutellum ( Fig. 1A ).

Genitalia. Male pygofer longer than height in lateral view, rounded posteriorly, posterior half with macrosetae, dorsal and ventral posterior margin without serrations, with short and weak ventral process ( Fig. 1D ). Valve broadly triangular ( Fig. 1E ). Subgenital plates long, triangular, with few uniseriate macrosetae laterally, also with fringe of long, fine microsetae ( Fig. 1E ). Connective Y-shaped, arms well separated from each other, with stem short ( Fig. 1E ). Style broad basally, with apophysis long, well developed, bluntly digitate apically ( Fig. 1E ). Aedeagus with well-developed dorsal apodeme, shaft compressed, directed posteriorly at basal ¼, then upturned almost at right angle, slightly broadened distally to angular projection on dorsal margin in lateral view then narrowed and truncate apically, gonopore apical, one pair of short spine-like retrorse process on either side of gonopore, each process about 2/5 as long as shaft, gonoduct prominently visible in shaft in lateral view ( Figs. 1G, F ).

Material examined. Holotype: [ LSNU] ♂, Pakistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Naran , (34°54’14.99” N 73°38’30.59” E) 2500m, 3.viii.2019, sweep net, coll. Hassan Naveed. Paratypes: [ NWAFU] 1♂, same data as ho- lotype .

Remarks. This new species is unusually different externally as compared to the remaining species of Pseudosubhimalus . Its placement in Pseudosubhimalus is mainly based of genitalic and other structural characters as color variation is a common trait in leafhopper species. Species of Pseudosubhimalus can be differentiated from other Cicadulini genera on the basis of following characters: forewing with distinct venation, with three anteapical cells, outer and middle anteapical cells closed, outer apical cell elongate, appendix narrowed, not well developed ( Fig. 1H ); legs chaetotaxy and morphology as in Niranjana et al. (2019, fig. 1H–J); connective Y-shaped with stem shorter than arm ( Fig. 1E ); style broad at base with well-developed preapical lobe, apophysis long, slender, with blunt apex,>0.25 of total style length ( Fig. 1E ); aedeagus with two or four processes, gonopore subapical.

It is somewhat similar to P. bicolor Pruthi, 1936 but can be differentiated by the habitus without black or dark brown spots on the crown, the pygofer lobe ventral margin smooth and with weak ventral processes, connective with stem very short, and aedeagal shaft broad at apex in lateral view. It can also be distinguished from P. trilobatus Niranjna et al., 2019 by same features.

Etymology. This species is named for the country from which it was collected.

Figures

FIGURE 1A–H. Pseudosubhimalus pakistanicus sp. n. A. habitus, dorsal view; B. habitus, lateral view; C. face; D. pygofer, lateral view; E. style, subgenital plates & connective, dorsal view; F. aedeagus, dorsal view; G. aedeagus, lateral view; H. forewing.