A new leafhopper species Longicornus brevispinus sp. nov. is described and illustrated from Yunnan Province, China. A key to distinguish all species of this genus is given, and a map showing the geographic distribution of all species is also provided. The type specimen of the new species is deposited in the Institute of Entomology, Guizhou University, Guiyang, China.

distribution, Homoptera, leafhopper, morphology, taxonomy

Li and Song (2008) established the genus Longicornus with L. flavipuncatus Li & Song, 2008 as its type species from China. This genus belongs to the tribe Scaphoideini of the subfamily Deltocephalinae based on the head being narrower than the pronotum, the frontoclypeus long and narrow, antennae long, and the forewing with one or more darkly pigmented reflexed veins in the vicinity of the outer anteapical cell (Zahniser and Dietrich 2013). Recently, Fang and Xing (2018) reviewed this genus and added two new species: L. furcatus Fang & Xing and L. biprocessus Fang & Xing, and considered L. flavipuncatus Li & Song, 2008 as a senior synonym of L. yunnanensis Xing & Li, 2011. So far, this genus includes five species, all from China.

During a study of the Chinese Deltocephalinae, we discovered another new species L. brevispinus sp. nov. from Yunan Province, China, which is described here. A key is also given to separate all five species of the genus. The type specimen of the new species is deposited in the Institute of Entomology, Guizhou University, Guiyang, China (GUGC).

Male specimens were used for the description and illustration. External morphology was observed under a stereoscopic microscope and characters were measured with an ocular micrometer. Color photographs were taken and stacked using a Nikon SMZ25 microscope. The genital segments of the specimens examined were macerated in 10% NaOH washed in distilled water and stored in glycerol. Male genital structures were drawn from preparations in glycerin jelly using a Leica MZ 12.5 stereomicroscope. Illustrations were scanned with a Canon CanoScan LiDE 200 and imported into Adobe Photoshop CS8 for labeling and plate composition.

Terminology of morphological and genital characters mainly follows Li et al. (2011) and Fang and Xing (2018). Absolute measurements, in millimeters (mm), are used for the body.

Species of Longicornus are all very similar in coloration and difficult to distinguish externally, but the structure of aedeagus are markedly different. This genus now includes five species which can be divided into two types based on the structure of aedeagus: 1) aedeagus with one pair of apical processes (L. brevispinus sp. nov., L. flavipuncatus and L. longus); 2) aedeagus with paired basal processes (L. furcatus and L. biprocessus). Longicornus furcatus has one pair of furcate aedeagal processes arising from the ventral margin near the base and L. biprocessus has two pairs of aedeagal processes medially on the dorsal margin of the shaft.

All species of Longicornus are distributed in southwest China (Oriental Region) and the species without apical processes of the aedeagus are distributed in the north of the region (Fig. 12). So far, this genus has not been recorded in the Palaearctic Region of China but it is highly likely that undiscovered species may be found there.

Figure 12. 

Geographic distribution of Longicornus species.

We thank Mick Webb (The Natural History Museum, London, U.K.) and Prof. C. A. Viraktamath (Department of Entomology University of Agricultural Sciences, GKVK, Bangalore, India) for reading the manuscript and making some suggestions. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31660624, 31301909), the Science and Technology Project of Guizhou Province (Qian Ke He Platform Talent [2017]5788), Talent Fund Program of Guizhou University ([2014]15) and the Program of Science and Technology Innovation Talents Team, Guizhou Province (No. 20144001).