Revision of Chlorionidea Löw (Hemiptera: Delphacidae) with the description of two new species from Italy, and comments on anti-symmetry in male genitalia of Delphacidae

Abstract

The genus Chlorionidea Löw until now contained two species: C. flava Löw and C. bromi Emeljanov. Recently we discovered two new species of this genus in Italy, which we describe in this paper as C. apenninica sp. nov. and C. sibillinica sp. nov. For all four Chlorionidea taxa we provide descriptions and an identification key. Details of male and female genitalia, aspects of head morphology and the fifth instar nymph of C. sibillinica are shown. In addition we discuss phylogenetic relationships between the four taxa. In three of the four species anti-symmetry in male genitalia is observed. We discuss this phenomenon and compare similar cases in other Delphacidae. Finally we summarize the available data on life cycle, food plants and geographical distribution of Chlorionidea species.

Keywords:

• Chlorionidea
• taxonomy
• phylogeny
• biogeography
• ecology
• Sesleria

Acknowledgements

We are very grateful for generous support by loan of material to Alexandr Emeljanov (Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, St Petersburg, Russia), Alexander Putchkov (Institute of Zoology of NAS, Kiev, Ukraine) and Sakis Drosopoulos (University of Athens, Greece). This study was supported by a grant from the University of Tuscia: 60%.