Epeurysa Matsumura, 1900

Genus Epeurysa Matsumura, 1900 View in CoL

= Upachara Distant, 1906 , synonym by Fennah (1975: 82).

Type species. Epeurysa nawaii Matsumura, 1900

Amended description. Mid-sized Tropidocephalini . Body coloration usually uniform shades of dull brown. Head just narrower than pronotum. Vertex quadrangular, short and broad (width more than 2× midlength), median carina faint, sublateral carinae arched medially, meeting before fastigium; in lateral view, head below level of pronotum giving body a hump-backed appearance; head in profile with fastigium rounded (clypeus receded weakly from level of frons). Frons broad, subquadrate with lateral margins laterally bowed (widest point near midlength); median carina distinct, forked near fastigium to form an indistinct areolet between arms and sublateral carinae of vertex. Postclypeus in profile in same plane as frons. Antennae short and terete, scape just longer than wide, pedicle just longer than scape.

Pronotum broad, longer than vertex at midlength, anterior margin rounded, posterior margin broadly concave; tricarinate, lateral carinae laterally arched, not reaching posterior margin; carinae between eye and tegulae absent; in lateral view pronotum declinate anteriorly. Mesonotum longer at midlength than vertex and pronotum combined; tricarinate, lateral carinae diverging; median carina not strongly keeled at scutellum. Calcar thickened and tectiform, bearing apical tooth but lacking teeth on trailing margin; apical spinulation 5 (3+2)-6-4 ( Fig. 2 View FIGURE 2 ). Forewings transparent, often indistinctly and irregularly washed with fuscous, veins setose.

Male terminalia in lateral view with pygofer broad, appearing irregularly triangular (broadest ventrad), lateral margins of pygofer opening convex, rounded (not strongly produced), lateroapical portion of opening receding (not expanded or produced); medioventral portion of opening (from caudoventral view) bearing median flange with elongate median process flanked with low lateral lobes; from caudal view pygofer opening round, margins not keeled, diaphragm weak. Gonostyli forked in appearance (except simple in E. stigma, Asche 1984 , fig. 4E), basal angle prominent and strongly produced, otherwise simple, outer and inner angles of apex weakly (or not) produced. Thecal base bulbous and twisted, bearing prominent, elongated, helically downcurved processes, subequal to theca in length, theca simple and tubular, apex often enlarged (may be ornamented with serrulations), usually bearing a laterally directed hooked process. Anal tube from lateral view broad, relatively short and quadrate, ventrolateral margins each bearing a short, thick process, widely separated from caudal view (except slender and acuminate in E. stigma, Asche 1984 , fig. 3E); paraproct conspicuous, tubular, conical or elongated.

Remarks. Epeurysa nawaii is now the only species of Tropidocephalini in the United States. Superficially, it resembles species in the genus Pareuidella Beamer (Delphacini) in size and general coloration, except that Epeurysa has a somewhat hump-backed appearance, a short, wide vertex, and a broader frons. Epeurysa differs from most North American Delphacini (including Pareuidella ) in having a broad frons, a thick, tectiform calcar, lacking teeth on the posterior margin (a characteristic of the tribe). North American taxa that lack teeth on the calcar (e.g., Liburniella Stål ) do not resemble Epeurysa .

Few delphacid genera in the United States bear processes on the medioventral margin of the pygofer ( Bartlett et al. 2014). The taxon with the most similar pygofer structure might be the adventive taro delphacid Tarophagus colocasiae (Matsumura) (see Bartlett &Wilson 2023, fig. 8), which has a similar trilobed structure on the medioventral margin of the pygofer, except the lateral lobes are angular and usually longer (or similar in height) than the median lobe. Tarophagus Zimmerman is in the Delphacini and bears few superficial similarities with Epeurysa .

Plant associations. Species of Epeurysa are reported from various species of bamboo ( Poaceae, Bambusoideae ) ( Table 2), including the genera Arundinaria Michx. , Bambusa Schreb. , Chimonobambusa Makino , Phyllostachys Siebold & Zucc. , Sinobambusa Makino ex Nakai , and Yushania Keng f. ( Yang & Yang 1986, Ding 2006).