Auranticopona, 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) : -

Auranticopona gen. nov.

(URN:LSID:ZOOBANK.ORG:ACT: 0CBBC0E8-0C58-4E49-A11A-D36FB9E86FFE)

Type species: Bythoscopus laetisigna Walker, 1857 .

Diagnosis: Similar in coloration and structure to Malaysiapona and Halimunella but differs in having the aedeagus symmetrical with an unpaired process arising near the base of the shaf and extending distad along the shaf, and the style apex digitiform without a pre-apical angulate projection.

Description: Body olive green. Crown with anterior half bright orange, without black spots. Eye orange with round black medial spot. Face unmarked. Pronotum with paired antero-medial, medial, and posterolateral symmetrical orange markings. Mesonotum and scutellum each with pair of submedial orange markings, apex of scutellum orange. Forewing smoky hyaline with costal and commissural margins orange and orange spot at base of corium, apex of corium and first two R branches broadly 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, slightly depressed behind anterior margin, anterior margin broadly rounded in dorsal view, only slightly longer medially than next to eye. Face with lateral frontal sutures strongly divergent dorsad of antennal pits, extended to ocelli; frontoclypeus 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 emarginate below eyes; antenna longer than half-body length; antennal pits situated near upper corner of eyes, encroaching onto 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 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 (small stout seta) + 5. Hind femur macrosetae 2 + 2 + 1.

Male genitalia: Pygofer dorsal bridge moderately long; lobe triangularly produced, tapered to narrowly rounded apex, with numerous macrosetae, posterior margin denticulate, 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, digitiform, without angulate lateral process, finely denticulate, pre-apical lobe poorly developed. Connective small, Y-shaped with stem broadened apically and slightly longer than arms, arms thickened and weakly divergent. Aedeagus with dorsal apodeme moderately well developed, column-like; shaf moderately long, tubular, curved dorsad with unpaired process arising near base and extended distad along shaf; gonopore large, apical; preatrium absent. Small sclerite articulated between apex of connective and base of aedeagus.

Etymology: Te genus name was formed by combing the Latin prefix ‘ aurantico -’ (orange), referring to the bright orange coloration, with ‘- pona ’ the suffix of the name of the type genus ( Parabolopona ) of the subtribe to which the new genus belongs. Gender: feminine.

Distribution: Malaysia (Sabah, Sarawak), Myanmar.

Remarks: Auranticopona comprises two previously described species, both of which are here transferred into the genus from Roxasella : A. laetisigna ( Walker, 1857) comb. nov. and A. egregia ( Stål, 1864) comb. nov.. Te later species is known only from the female syntype but is placed here based on its close morphological similarity to the type species, the male genitalia of which were illustrated by Zhang and Webb (1996). In our phylogenetic analysis based on combined morphological and molecular data, the two included species of this genus formed a polytomy with the clade comprising Halimunella and Malaysiapona . Tese three genera are very similar in overall structure and coloration but have distinctive male genitalia. Te phylogenetic position of A. egregia was poorly resolved because only female characters could be scored for the analysis and molecular data could not be obtained.

Checklist of Auranticopona species

A. egregia ( Stål 1864, Selenocephalus ) comb. nov. ( Fig. 20A–E). A. laetisigna ( Walker 1857, Bythoscopus ) comb. nov. ( Figs.21A–K).