Roxasella caudospina, 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) : -

Roxasella caudospina sp.nov.

( Fig. 11A–R) (URN:LSID:ZOOBANK.ORG:ACT: FBDF4F77-EA9B-4770-90B0-E577B90C4FA7)

Diagnosis: Head and thorax with orange markings, crown with narrow black band at anterior margin. Male pygofer with row of small teeth on caudoventral margin and short distal spine. Style apex bilobed, pre-apical lobe indistinct. Aedeagus with two pairs of distal processes. One apical pair extends beyond a midlength shaf, second pair subapical close to shaf ventrally, gonopore apical. Fore tibia with dorsal setal arrangement of rows AD and PD 4 + 7. Fore femur IC with about 16 setae, AV with four stout setae.

Description: Length (including tegmen): male 8.5 mm, female 9.0– 9.5 mm.

Coloration: Body yellowish.Crown with narrow black band at anterior margin, area posterad of band ochraceous except narrowly yellow posterior margin. Face tan dorsally and yellowish more ventrad, with narrow black band at dorsal margin. Pronotum with anterior margin broadly yellow, irregularly arcuate orange medial band, and greenish brown posteromedial area. Forewing smoky hyaline with fuscous markings at apex of clavus and along anterior branches of R. Crown parabolic, anterior and posterior margins subparallel. Fore tibia with dorsal setal arrangement of rows AD and PD 4 + 7. Fore femur IC with about 16 setae, AV with four stout setae.

Male genitalia: Pygofer with caudodorsal margin narrowly rounded, with short apical spine extended posteromesad, posteroventral margin serrate. Style apophysis expanded, apex with large posteromedial lobe and beaklike lateral pre-apical projection, pre-apical lobe indistinct. Connective short, stem broad and slightly longer than arms. Aedeagus with dorsal apodeme long, T-shaped in posterior view, bent near midlength in lateral view; shaf in lateral view nearly straight, slightly widened distally, in posterior view parallel sided through most of length with slight pre-apical bulge, with two pairs of distal processes, one apical pair extended ventrolaterally beyond a midlength shaf, curved posterad in lateral view, second pair subapical close to shaf ventrally, gonopore apical.

Female (non-type) genitalia: Female sternite VII posterior margin with two short medial processes and pair of lateral concavities.

Material examined: Holotype: ♂, Malaysia, Sabah, FMU10, Apin apin, Keningau (05°44.31 ′ 07N, 116°45.15 ′ 72E), 1217 m, 24 April–3 May 2016, coll. Z.S. Song.

Additional (non-type) material: 2♀ (tentatively associated to males, see generic Remarks), same data as holotype ( NWAFU) .

Etymology: Tis specific epithet, a Latinized adjective, refers to the spine at the apex of the pygofer lobe.

Remarks: Tis species closely resembles R. appendasclerita but differs in having the aedeagal processes longer, the style with a distinctive large posteromedial lobe, and the male pygofer lobe with a distal spine and serrate posteroventral margin.