Eucarpia Walker, 1857

Genus Eucarpia Walker, 1857 View in CoL View at ENA

Eucarpia Walker, 1857 , 1: 159.

Ptoleria Stål, 1859 , 3: 321, synonymised by Fennah, 1980.

Ambalangoda Distant, 1912 , 8: 188, synonymised by Fennah, 1980.

Type species: Eucarpia univitta Walker, 1857 View in CoL (by monotypy).

Diagnosis. Body size. Medium-sized cixiid species. Body moderately compressed.

Head. Head including eyes slightly narrower than pronotum. Vertex parallel-sided or slightly widened to posterior emargination, apical margin transverse; broader than long and without subapical carina, lateral carinae slightly or moderately elevated, medium carina distinct or obsolete. Frons not markedly elongate, hollowed in basal 1/2. Frons narrowest at base, widest across or below level of antennae, lateral carinae elevated, medium carina complete or at least distinct on apical half, disc somewhat depressed on basal half. Median ocellus absent. Clypeus with strongly elevated median carina, and elevated lateral carinae.

Thorax. Pronotum short, chevron-shaped, with or without median carina, intermediate carinae finely curved. Mesonotum tricarinate. Forewing in resting position steeply tectiform, widened towards apex, with rounded or obliquely truncate apical margin, with 10‒11 apical cells, Sc+R forked basad of CuA, first crossvein MP 3+4 -CuA 1 basad of level of crossvein r-m, distinctly longer than vein MP 3+4 from MP fork to first crossvein MP 3+4 -CuA 1, and about as long as crossvein r-m, subapical cell MP with upper margin (vein MP) fine concave. Wings with simple R. Hind tibia lacking lateral spines.

Distribution. Australian, Afrotropical, Oriental and Sino-Japanese regions.

Remarks. The authors tried to obtain the type specimens of Eucarpia specialis Tsaur & Hsu, 2003 , E. stellata Tsaur & Hsu, 2003 and E. truncate Tsaur & Hsu, 2003 for examination from Taiwan Agricultural Research Institute (TARI), Department of Entomology, National Chung Hsing University (NCHU), Department of Entomology, National Taiwan University (NTU) and The Natural History Museum (BMNH), but unfortunately could not find one.

Fennah (1980) provided an identification key to the genera of the ‘ Eucarpia ’ group (now the tribe Eucarpiini ). In order to key to Eucarpia the forewing of the specimen needs to have crossvein MP 3+4 -CuA 1 basad of level of crossvein r-m, distinctly longer than MP 3+4 from MP fork to this crossvein, and about as long as crossvein r-m. The illustations of forewings of type species of Ptoleria Stål and Ambalangoda Distant , placed in synonymy under Eucarpia View in CoL View at ENA , confirming Fennah’s opinion. However, Tsaur and Hsu (2003) claimed otherwise, namely crossvein MP 3+4 -CuA 1 extremely short and the crossvein is located distally than level of veinlet r-m, which is inconsistent with the type species Eucarpia univitta Walker, 1857 ( Walker, 1857: Plate VIII, Fig. 3 View FIGURE 3 ) and Fennah’s identification key. According to the key in Fennah and original description in Tsaur and Hsu, Eucarpia specialis , E. stellata and E. truncate most probably belong to the genera Kirbyana Distant, 1906 , Bajauana Distant, 1907 or Dilacreon Fennah, 1980 . However, some key characters such as the hindwing venation, if the vertex in same line as thorax and meeting frons abruptly rectangularly in profile horizontal and the ratio of the length between the subapical and apical segments of the rostrum are not included in descriptions made by Tsaur and Hsu. Therefore, in the future, the types should be examined or the specimens should be collected from the type locality for further study.