Abstract

The adult male of Nancyana curva is described and illustrated for the first time, based on four specimens from the states of Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais. Male diagnostic characters include the presence of a pair of inner projections on the dorsal lobe of the pygofer, and a dorsal pair of short subapical processes on the aedeagus. The female color pattern is similar to that of male, with dark brown bands on torax not so clear.
 

Key words ]]>

Insecta, Homoptera, leafhopper, taxonomy, neotropics.
 

The genus Nancyana Freytag is comprised of eleven known species (two of them previously described in RhogosanaOsborn, 1938) and is recorded from Venezuela, Argentina and Guyana. Only one species has been described from both sexes; in four of them only the male is known, and the descriptions of the remaining five species are based on females (Freytag 1990). Nancyana curvaFreytag was described based on a single female from Guyana, and is related to N. aldeia (DeLong) according to Freytag (1990). N. curva was diagnosed by the presence of a conspicuous semicircular dark spot on forewings, by larger body size and by shape of the seventh sternite (Freytag 1990).  In this paper the male of N. curva is described and new morphological characters of the female are presented. The specimens used in this study were collected in the states of Minas Gerais (MG) and Rio de Janeiro (RJ), Brazil and are deposited in the Museu Regional de Entomologia, Universidade Federal de Viçosa, MG (UFV), andin the Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Rio de Janeiro, RJ (IOC). This is the first record of Nancyana from Brazil.

Nancyana curva Freytag, Proc. Entomol.   Soc. Wash. 92: 530.

]]> Male. Length 15.5 mm. General color reddish-brown. Crown width between eyes, at base, about three times its median length; U-shaped dark brown spot reaching inner margins of eyes; coronal suture not reaching anterior margin of crown. Width of pronotum twice its length; pronotum with five dark brown stripes; the median stripe not reaching anterior margin of pronotum and crossing the anterior margin of scutellum; two narrow stripes adjacent to median stripe not attaining posterior margin of pronotum; other wider remanescent stripes extending from an area behind ocelli to lateral margin of scutellum before scutellar suture. Forewings similar to female: general color brown with pale yellow spots, median region with dark brown semicircular spot following costal margin with its largest width reaching claval suture; apical cells suffused with dark brown spots, oval shaped dark spot close to apex of claval suture; veins brown, with small bristles. Hindwings dark.

Genitalia. Subgenital plates approximately three times as long as their maximum width, with apex rounded, innerly excavated, with bristles on apical region and on outer lateral margin originating mainly on inner surface. Pygofer robust, with apical margin bilobed, dorsal lobe with brush of bristles externally and internally with finger-like prolongation, apex indented on the inner margin. Styles with apical arm approximately seven times as long as its maximum width, with small sparse bristles; apex foot-shaped, directed dorsally, with short ventral spine. Aedeagus with long stem, concavely depressed on ventral surface and with two pairs of subapical processes: lateroventral pair curved to stem base, with median region enlarged and narrowed to apex, laterally curved, reaching approximately half of length of stem; short dorsal pair with narrowed apex curved toward stem base. Basal processes enlarged at base, abruptly narrowed from the apical third, surpassing half of the stem length.

Female. Length 17.0-18.5 mm. Crown approximately three times as wide between eyes, at base, as median length, with uniform brown color pattern. Genae with many bristles outlining eye margins. Pronotum with maximum width approximately twice median length, color pattern similar to that of male, three central dark brown bands and scutellar bands unclear.

Studied specimens. 1 male - Brazil, state of Minas Gerais, Viçosa, 1935, E.J. Hambleton leg. (UFV); 1 female - Brazil, state of Minas Gerais, Viçosa, Mata do Paraíso, 1988, P.S.F. Ferreira leg. (UFV); 1 male- Brazil, state of Rio de Janeiro, Itatiaia, 23/XII/1935, J.F. Zikán leg. (IOC); 1 female - Brazil, state of Rio de Janeiro, Itatiaia, 21/I/1939, J.F. Zikán leg. (IOC).
 

Discussion

In relation to the male genitalia, N. curva can be differentiated from the other species of Nancyana by the presence of a pair of inner projections on the dorsal lobe of the pygofer, and by a dorsal pair of short subapical processes on the aedeagus.

According to label data, the female specimen from the state of Rio de Janeiro was collected on “whip-horse” (Luehea divaricata Mart., Tiliaceae), a forest tree (Joly 1987). This is the only host known plant recorded for N. curva.

I thank Elidiomar R. Da-Silva (Universidade do Rio de Janeiro), Jorge L. Nessimian, Alcimar L. Carvalho, Gabriel L.F. Mejdalani, and Márcio E. Felix (Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro) for critical reading of this paper. I am also very grateful to Paulo S.F. Ferreira (UFV) and Sebastião de Oliveira (IOC) for loading the studied specimens. This research was partially funded by the CAPES/PICD/UFRJ.
  ]]> References

Freytag, P.H. 1990. The new genus Nancyana and nine new species with the review of the related genus Rhogosana (Homoptera: Cicadellidae). Proc. Entomol. Soc. Wash. 92: 530-537.         [ Links ]

Joly, A.B. 1987. Botânica: introdução à taxonomia vegetal. Editora Nacional, São Paulo. 777 p.         [ Links ]

¹ Departamento de Zoologia, Instituto de Biologia, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Caixa Postal 68044, 21944-970, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil. Telefax: 55-21-5605993. E-mail: lbcoelho@acd.ufrj.br ]]> 1990 92 530-537 1987 777