Abstract
The identity of the Old World grass feeding leafhopper species Soractellus nigrominutus Evans, 1966 is clarified and its distribution revised. Based on examination of material, from throughout its range, the following species are placed as new subjective junior synonyms of S. nigrominutus: S. jianfengensis Xing & Li, 2014, syn. nov., and S. lalianensis Naveed & Zhang, 2018, syn. nov. The following new country records for S. nigrominutus are recorded: Thailand, Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Senegal, Ethiopia and Saudi Arabia.
References
Chalam, M.S.V. & Subba Rao, V.R. (2005) New records of leafhoppers (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae: Deltocephalinae) from India. Journal of Entomological Research, 29 (3), 233−235.
Evans, J.W. (1966) The leafhoppers and froghoppers of Australia and New Zealand (Homoptera: Cicadelloidea and Cercopoiodea). Australian Museum Memoir, 12, 1−347.
https://doi.org/10.3853/j.0067-1967.12.1966.425
Ghauri, M.S.K. (1983) A case of long-distance dispersal of a leafhopper. Proceedings of the 1st International Workshop on the leafhoppers and planthoppers of economic importance, 1983, 249−255.
Naveed, H. & Zhang, Y. (2018) Revision of the leafhopper genus Soractellus Evans (Cicadellidae: Deltocephalinae) with description of a new species from Pakistan. Zootaxa, 4429 (3), 595−599.
htts://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4429.3.12
Stiller, M. (1998) The African leafhopper genus Nicolaus Lindberg (Homoptera: Cicadellidae: Paralimnini). African Entomology, 6 (2), 325−364.
Webb, M.D. (1981) The Asian, Australasian and Pacific Paraboloponinae (Homoptera: Cicadellidae). A taxonomic revision with a key to all known genera of the subfamily. Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History). Entomology Series, 43 (2), 39−76.
Webb, M.D. & Vilbaste, J. (1994) Review of the leafhopper genus Balclutha Kirkaldy in the Oriental Region (Insecta: Homoptera: Auchenorrhyncha: Cicadellidae). Entomologische Abhandlungen, 56 (3), 55−87.
Xing, J.-C. & Li, Z.-Z. (2014) First record of the leafhopper genus Soractellus Evans, 1966 (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae: Deltocephalinae) from China, with description of a new species. Zootaxa, 3784 (3), 297−300.
https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.3784.3.10
Zahniser, J.N. & Dietrich, C.H. (2013) A review of the tribes of Deltocephalinae (Hemiptera: Auchenorrhyncha: Cicadellidae). European Journal of Taxonomy, 45, 1–211.
https://doi.org/10.5852/ejt.2013.45
Zahniser, J.N. (2018) An online interactive key and searchable database of Deltocephalinae (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae). Available online: http://zahniser.speciesfile.org (accessed 10 March 2018)