A New Species of Abbrosoga (Hemiptera: Fulgoroidea: Delphacidae), An Endemic Puerto Rican Planthopper Genus, with an Updated Checklist of the Delphacidae of Puerto Rico
Author
Otero, Miriel
Author
Bartlett, Charles R.
text
Zootaxa
2019
2019-03-01
4563
2
372
386
journal article
28148
10.11646/zootaxa.4563.2.10
c60ae4d1-3799-4569-a862-b7dca347808d
1175-5326
2601139
31419EB4-58A8-4B27-A081-DC075A07C061
Genus
Abbrosoga
Caldwell, 1951
Type
species.
Abbrosoga errata
Caldwell, 1951
Diagnosis.
Body pale with weakly patterned wings (known species with an entirely pale frons); head and thoracic carinae distinct, concolorous with body. Aedeagus bearing a ventral projection (unique among New World
Delphacini
); pygofer opening without ventral processes, anal tube (=segment X) without processes.
Amended description.
Elongate and slender forms. Head narrower than pronotum (
Figs 1A
,
3A
), vertex weakly projected in front of eyes. Vertex and frons broad, fastigium rounded (
Figs 1C
,
3C
). Medial facial carinae forking near fastigium (
Figs 1B
,
3B
). Median carina of vertex weak. Lateral carinae of pronotum not clearly reaching posterior margin. Hind leg (
Fig. 1D
) with 2 lateral spines, 1 near femoral-tibial joint, 1 near midlength; tibial apex with 5 spinules, arranged 3+2. Basitarsus with 7 apical spinules, arranged 5+2, second tarsomere with row of 4 spinules. Forewing (
Figs 1C
,
3C
) elongate, mostly clear with diffuse patterning (in distal cubital area and less often in costal region), with an elongate dark spot on commissural margin at apex of claval veins. Forewing venation (
Fig. 6
) with Sc and RA unbranched, RP 3 branched, M unbranched and CuA 2–3 branched. Metatibial spur foliaceous and tectiform, row of many fine, black-tipped teeth on posterior margin. Male genitalia with pygofer subquadrate in lateral view (
Figs 2B
,
3E
), distinctly taller than wide; opening in caudal view subcircular with rounded margins (
Figs 2A
,
3F
), lacking projections. Gonostyli (=parameres) (
Figs 4C
,
5A
) simple (unbranched), basal angle small; proximally diverging, apex medially converging in distal forth. Aedeagus (
Figs 4B
,
5B
) strongly curved ventrally, subtended with slender process(es). Aedeagal base closely approximating anal tube (aedeagal base symmetrical), suspensorium O-shaped, surrounding base of aedeagus including subtending process, stem of suspensorium (between aedeagus and anal tube) short. Male anal tube unarmed.
FIGURE 1.
Abbrosoga errata
Caldwell
, male holotype except D (Maricao State Forest); A. dorsal habitus, B. front, C. lateral habitus, D. hind leg and metatibial spur, ventral view, E. labels.
Remarks.
Superficially,
Abbrosoga
is similar to other pale
Delphacini
, such as
Toya
Distant
,
Metadelphax
Wagner
,
Spartidelphax
Bartlett & Webb
,
Syndelphax
Fennah
,
Sogatella
Fennah
or perhaps
Tagosodes
Asche & Wilson. The
dorsum of the mesonotum bears a narrow, weak median vitta, unlike the strong vitta of
Sogatella
and
Tagosodes
. Unlike
Metadelphax
,
Toya
,
Spartidelphax
and some
Syndelphax
, the frons is entirely pale, instead of bearing dark markings near the carinae. The wings are diffusely patterned unlike macropterous
Syndelphax
. The form of the terminalia, and the aedeagus in particular, contrasts with all these genera; the aedeagus of
Abbrosoga
bears a subtending process that is not found in any of these other genera.
It is possible that
Abbrosoga
is phylogenetically most closely allied with
Phrictopyga
and
Pygospina
in that they are all pale taxa, with a weak median vitta (absent in
A. multispinosa
n. sp.
), diffusely pale wings, and bearing (at least between
Pygospina
and
Abbrosoga
) similarities in the male genitalia (shape of pygofer, parameres and aedeagus). However, both
Pygospina
and
Phrictopyga
are slightly laterally compressed with the pygofer and anal tube bearing processes that are absent in
Abbrosoga
.
Caldwell & Martorell (1951)
compared
Abbrosoga
to
Nilaparvata
Distant and
Columbisoga
Muir.
Nilaparvata
has teeth on the basitarsus of the hind legs, a synapomorphy of the genus.
Columbisoga
may have similar coloration and also has a similar structure of the aedeagus (i.e., bearing a ventral projection), but is in the
Tropidocephalini
, and lacks teeth on the calcar (and the distinct suspensorium found in
Delphacini
).
All available specimens of
A. errata
were collected at relatively high elevations, above
2000 ft
(
610 m
) as reported by
Caldwell and Martorell (1951)
. In contrast, specimens of
A. multispinosa
n. sp.
were collected at low elevation (the
type
locality is at approximately
40 m
). No plant associations are available for
Abbrosoga
. At present the genus is only known from
Puerto Rico
; however, we have examined a single male specimen from
Costa Rica
(La Selva Biological Station, UDCC) that is substantially similar to
Abbrosoga
and may be placed in the genus once more material becomes available. We have also examined a specimen from
Brazil
(
Santa Catarina
, UDCC) that has substantially similar male terminalia, but is much larger and darkly patterned and may be an allied undescribed genus.
Etymology.
The etymology of “
Abbrosoga
” was not specified in
Caldwell & Martorell (1951)
, and the underlying meaning is not obvious to us. We speculate that the name is a truncation of the Latin word “
abbreviatus
” plus the Spanish word “
soga
” (rope), meaning ‘short rope’ a possible reference to the suspensorium. Also, plausibly the name may be comprised of the prefix “
ab
-̏ (away, from) plus a truncation of “
brosis
” (Greek, food), plus “-
oga
” for euphony; or alternatively an arbitrary combination of letters. The name is treated as feminine in gender.