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Family Delphacidae Leach, 1815

Subfamily Delphacinae Leach, 1815

Tribe Saccharosydnini Vilbaste, 1968

Genus Lacertinella Rossi Batiz & Remes Lenicov, 2012

Type species (in original combination): Lacertina australis Remes Lenicov & Rossi Batiz, 2011.

Synonyms

Lacertina Remes Lenicov & Rossi Batiz, 2011 (unavailable, nec Lacertina Meuschen 1778).

Rossi Batiz, 2014: 40 “The species was originally described as monotypic of the genus Lacertina by Remes Lenicov & Rossi Batiz (2011) to include a new species of Saccharosydnini from Argentina, ignoring that this name had a senior namesake, Lacertina Meuschen (1778), which corresponds to the genus of a Amphibian from New Zealand. Although this name belongs to an amphibian, in the Zoologicus Nomenclator it refers to a reptile.”

Distribution

Argentina, Uruguay.

Recognized species

There is a single described species currently placed in this genus.

Lacertinella australis (Remes Lenicov & Rossi Batiz, 2011) – Argentina (Buenos Aires Province, Córdoba, Entre Ríos, Jujuy, La Pampa, La Rioja, Mendoza, Neuquén, Río Negro, San Juan, Tucumán); Uruguay (based on specimens).

= Lacertina australis Remes Lenicov & Rossi Batiz, 2011

Plant associations

Pampas Grass – Cortaderia selloana (Schult. & Schult. f.) Asch. & Graebn.; possibly also garlic, rye, rice

Frequently found on cutter (Cortaderia spp.) and garlic (Allium sativum) crops during spring and summer; occasionally on rye (Secale cereale) and rice (Oryza sativa) (Rossi Batiz and Remes Lenicov, 2009).

Economic Importance

Unclear.  Rossi Batiz (2014) states “This species has been captured on garlic cultures that showed symptoms of the disease known as “Garlic Tristeza” caused by a phytoplasma of the 16SrIII (X-disease) subgroup J (Galdeano et al., 2004).”

Recognition

Head flattened, unusual in shape and carination; frons with 2 median carinae; male parameres with rounded internal and acute external apical angles.

Image from Rossi Batiz 2014 (in turn based on Rossi Batiz & Remes Lenicov 2011).

Lacertinella australis (photos by Kimberley Shropshire, University of Delaware)

Molecular resources

There are no data on this genus in Genbank or BOLD.

Selected references

Rossi-Batiz, M.F. 2014. Taxonomía, Distribución y Biología de la tribu Saccharosydnini (Insecta-Hemiptera-Fulgoromorpha). Universidad Nacional de La Plata, La Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Doctoral Thesis.

Rossi-Batiz, M.F. and A.M.M. de Remes-Lenicov. 2009. First record of the genus Saccharosydne Kirkaldy 1907 (Hemiptera – Fulgoromorpha – Delphacidae) in Argentina. Interciencia – Journal of Science and Technology of the Americas, Venezuela 34 (2): 127-129.

Rossi Batiz, M. F. and A.M.M. de Remes-Lenicov. 2011. A new genus and species of Saccharosydnini (Hemiptera: Fulgoromorpha: Delphacidae) from Argentina. Zootaxa 3118: 62-68.

Rossi Batiz, M. F. and A. M. Remes Lenicov. 2012. Lacertinella, a replacement name for Lacertina Remes Lenicov and Rossi Batiz, 2011 (Hemiptera: Fulgoromorpha: Delphacidae). Revista de la Sociedad Entomológica Argentina 71(3): 307.

Rossi Batiz, M. F. and A. M. Marino de Remes Lenicov. 2014. Description of the immature stages of Lacertinella australis (Hemiptera: Delphacidae). Journal of Insect Science 14(113): 1-9. ISSN: 1536-2442.

Galdeano, E., L. E. Torres, N. Meneguzzi, F. Guzmán, G. G. Gomez, D. M. Docampo and L. R. Conci. 2004. Molecular Characterization of 16S Ribosomal DNA and Phylogenetic Analysis of Two X-disease Group Phytoplasmas Affecting China-tree (Melia azedarach L.) and Garlic (Allium sativum L.) in Argentina. Journal Phytopathology, 152: 174–181.

Leach, W. E. 1815a. Entomology. The Edinburg encyclopedia; conducted by David Brewster 9: 57-172. (family Delphacidae p. 125).

Vilbaste, J. 1968. K faune tsikadovykh Primorskogo kraia. [Über die Zikadenfauna des Primorje Gebietes.] Valgus, Tallin, Estonia.