Philipona, Lu & Dietrich & Webb & Zhang, 2025

Lu, Lin, Dietrich, Christopher H., Webb, M. D. & Zhang, Yalin, 2025, Revision of the Oriental Roxasella leafopper group: phylogeny, morphological evolution, biogeography, and description of 14 new species, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 204 (3) : -

Philipona gen. nov.

(URN:LSID:ZOOBANK. ORG:ACT: A9721833-8027-45EA-8112- 58A5EEB48800)

Type species: Omanella philippina Merino, 1936 . Diagnosis: Tis genus closely resembles Halimunella and Paraphysipona in coloration and overall structure but differs in lacking wide black maculae along the apices of the anterior branches of forewing vein R and in having the aedeagus symmetrical with a pair of distal processes and paraphysis absent.

Description: Coloration: Body olive green to dull yellow. Crown and dorsum of compound eyes bright orange with three small black anterior submarginal spots between eyes. Face with thin transverse orange band dorsally continuous with orange area of crown. Pronotum blue-green with antero-medial, medial, and posterolateral pairs of symmetrical orange markings. Mesonotum with black macula at each corner of basolateral triangle and pair of submedial orange stripes extended on to scutellum, scutellum apex orange. Forewing smoky hyaline with costal and commissural margins orange, orange spot at base of clavus, and apices of claval veins marked with black. Front and middle tibia orange.

Body oblong, relatively broad, slightly depressed. Head slightly broader than pronotum; anterior margin relatively thick in profile, weakly bicarinate with few additional fine transverse striations. Ocelli small, situated in sulcus of foremargin, separated from adjacent eye by distance equal to own diameter. Crown flat, short, slightly depressed behind anterior margin, anterior margin broadly rounded in dorsal view, parallel to posterior margin. Face with lateral frontal sutures strongly divergent dorsad of antennal pits, extended to ocelli; clypeus relatively narrow, distinctly swollen dorsally, depressed ventrally; clypeal suture straight; anteclypeus with lateral margins concave, apex expanded; lora broader than basal width of anteclypeus; gena strongly emarginate below eyes; antenna longer than half-body length; antennal pits situated near upper corner of eyes, encroaching on to clypeus; antennal ledges moderately developed and oblique but not carinate. Pronotum well produced between eyes, hind margin slightly concave; lateral margin short, carinate; posterior two-thirds with irregular transverse striations. Mesonotum and scutellum together slightly broader than long; scutellar suture arcuate. Forewing with four apical cells and three subapical cells, inner subapical cell open; two anterior branches of R weakly reflexed; appendix broad. Fore femur with AM1 near midheight of femur, AV with few stout setae in basal half; IC with series of several fine, close-set setae; fore tibia with dorsal setal arrangement of rows AD and PD: 1 + 4. Hind femur macrosetae 2 + 2 + 1.

Male genitalia: Pygofer dorsal bridge moderately long; lobe broadly rounded with numerous macrosetae, posterior margin smooth, processes absent. Valve broadly triangular. Xth segment moderately long, well sclerotized dorsally and laterally, anterodorsal margin V-shaped in dorsal view. Subgenital plate with base broad and rounded laterally, apex atenuate, macrosetae absent, scatered long, fine setae present. Style apophysis stout with lateroposterior angle acutely produced (avicephaliform), finely denticulate, pre-apical lobe poorly developed. Connective small, Y-shaped with stem shorter than arms and broadened apically, arms thickened and weakly divergent. Paraphysis absent. Aedeagus with dorsal apodeme well developed, column-like, shallowly bifurcate apically; preatrium absent; shaf moderately long, curved dorsad with pair of slender retrorse processes apically; gonopore large, pre-apical on posterior surface.

Etymology: Te genus name was formed by combining a prefix from the name of its home country ( Philippines) with ‘- pona ’, a suffix from the name of the type genus ( Parabolopona ) of the subtribe to which the new genus belongs. Gender: feminine.

Distribution: Philippines.

Remarks: Te type species of this monotypic genus grouped with Nakula in a sister-clade to the remaining members of Clade 2 in our phylogenetic analysis of combined morphological and molecular data ( Fig. 3). It also did not group with the other included species of Roxasella in the phylogenomic analysis of Cao et al. (2022). Philipona resembles Paraphysipona in coloration and in having three black anterior spots on the vertex but differs in having paraphysis between aedeagus and connective absent. It resembles Roxasella in the structure of the male genitalia but differs from the later in having head with anterior margin moderately thick and aedeagus without paired apical processes.