Philotheria natalensis (Stål 1855)

Philotheria is a diverse genus of Dictyopharid planthoppers which are generally brown with brown veins, the transverse veins often darker with the pigment bleeding into the adjacent areas of the membrane, and with the head produced beyond the eyes a variable amount. The relative length of the head is one of the most useful characters for diagnosing individual species. In South Africa, Philotheria natalensis is the common short-headed member of the genus, and can be identified by having the head produced beyond the eyes a distance approximately equal to 1.2x the length of an eye.

Images of pinned specimens from the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin:

Original description in Stål C. 1855 - Hemiptera fran Kafferlandet. Ofversigt af Kongliga Svenska Vetenskaps-Akademiens Förhandlingar. Stockholm 12:89-100 [91].
https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/54201#page/103/mode/1up

Translated from Latin:
Dirty yellow; head triangularly produced before the eyes, three times longer than the intraocular width; the hemelytra of the abdomen almost twice as long, hyaline white, the apex of the nerves towards the stigmatic spot brown, the femora are brown-spotted. Length: 8mm. Natal.

Supplementary description in Synave H. 1965 - Dictyopharidae. Exploration du Parc National Garamba. Mission H. de Saeger (1949-1952) 47: 1-63.
https://cd.chm-cbd.net/archives_rdc/archives/publications/exploration-parc-national-de-la-garamba/mission-h-de-saeger-1954-1968/1965-fascicule-47-dictyopharidae-homoptera-fulgoroidea/fasc47-synave1965_complet.pdf

Translated from French:
This species, unlike those above, is characterized by a very short cephalic extension (see fig. 32). Indeed, the latter exceeds the front edge of the eyes by a length barely greater than that of an eye (55: 47). The total length of the vertex and its extension is 3 times the width of the vertex between the eyes (87:27). The lateral edges of the head protuberance are streamlined and slightly raised, parallel from the apex to the narrowing in front of the eyes. On the elytra (see fig. 42), bifurcation of M before that of Sc + R; bifurcation CL1 Cl2 on the middle of the clavus; the bifurcations of the longitudinal veins as well as the transverse ones are clouded with dark brown. Aedeagus, see fig. 4. Total length: approx. 10mm.

Images of Philotheria natalensis on iNat:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?taxon_id=1465842

Posted on 06 de fevereiro de 2024, 08:15 AM by psyllidhipster