![Thumbnail: [Volume 54, 1923 page 430]](/journals/rsnz/images/rsnz_54/thumbnails/rsnz_54_00_0523_0430_ac_02.gif)
Art. 31.—New Species of New Zealand Cicadidae.
[Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 25th October, 1921; received, by Editor, 31st December, 1921; issued separately, 30th April, 1923.]
A new genus is added to the New Zealand fauna by the discovery of two species of Pauropsalta Goding and Froggatt. The two genera of New Zealand Cicadidae may readily be distinguished as follows:—
| Wings with six apical cells | Melampsalta Amyot. |
| Wings with five apical cells | Pauropsalta God. & Frogg. |
Melampsalta campbelli n. sp.
♀. Bright olive-green marked with black and pinkish-red. Vertex olive-green suffused with pink; covered with black and metallic-gold hairs. Ocelli greenish-amber, surrounded by a black patch sending a black line latero-caudad to the pronotum. Eyes overlapping the pronotum caudad, olive-green with an intricate foliaceous pattern in black. Antennae black. Frons and clypeus reddish-olive with a dark median area from which extend laterad seven or eight transverse piceous ridges. Rostrum reddish-amber, extending to about middle coxae. Coxae red, with bold shining black markings. Pronotum glabrous except for a very few scattered short black or shining gold hairs; a rectangular black spot on middle of posterior border; two irregular oblique lines laterad, black and impressed as though burnt; posterior border produced slightly and flattened, forming a slight rim which is pink, and, transversely, irregularly striate. Mesonotum with a longitudinal triangular brownish-black mark on each side, extending from pronotum nearly to posterior border; two shorter triangular blackish spots between these; an impressed black spot at each of the two anterior corners of the cruciform elevation. Cruciform elevation brownish-pink, clothed in the lateral angles with glistening silver hair. Remainder of mesonotum olive-green and clothed as pronotum. Abdominal terga jet-black with segmental margins olive-green. The green segmental margins increase in width caudad until they occupy more than half the visible portion of the tergum. Clothing as on the nota, but with a patch of silver hairs on the middle of each segmental margin, forming an irregular longitudinal dorsal streak. Ultimate tergum with a deep black line on each side; remainder thereof and penultimate tergum red. Abdomen ventrally pinkish-olive with a faint longitudinal dark line. Ovipositor shining fuscous. Legs pinkish-yellow, anterior ones with black markings. Posterior tibiae with five long spines (exclusive of apical coronet)—three inner and two outer. Tarsi pale pink. Tegmina and wings hyaline. Veins—proximal half magenta, distal half fuscous. Small portion of anal area of wing opaque china-white. Wings very short in proportion to body.
Length of body, 16 mm.; tegmen, 14 mm.
This, our most brilliantly coloured cicada, is so distinct that I can single out none of the above characters for special emphasis. I have much pleasure in dedicating it to the discoverer, Mr. J. W. Campbell, who took the two female specimens at Otira on the 10th January, 1920.
Type ♀, and ♀ paratype, Myers collection, Wellington. Male unknown.
![Thumbnail: [Volume 54, 1923 page 431]](/journals/rsnz/images/rsnz_54/thumbnails/rsnz_54_00_0524_0431_ac_02.gif)
Pauropsalta lindsayi n. sp.
♂. Dull black, densely covered with a short closely appressed golden pubescence, causing it to assume a dusty-yellowish appearance. Vertex with a very few long black hairs in addition to the universal gold pubescence. Ocelli toffee-coloured. Eyes dull olive with a few blackish markings. Antennae dull black. Face with fine black transverse ridges. Ventral surface pale, dirty olivaceous with silvery pubescence and a few indistinct darker markings. Rostrum reaching middle coxae. Pronotum as vertex, but with two deeply impressed oblique black lines on each side. Between the black lines on each side are a few irregular black ridges. Mesonotum as pronotum. Cruciform elevation normal, dull olive, but with the same universal gold pubescence. Abdomen as nota. Segmental margins very narrowly yellow—too narrowly to be perceptible with the naked eye. Tymbals white (as seen from above). Genitalia very distinct. Sternal plate projects well beyond everything else in dorsal view. Ventrally this sclerite has a strong keel and is altogether boat-shaped. Legs dull greyish-yellow marked with darker. Posterior tibiae with five long spines (exclusive of apical coronet). Tegmina and wings hyaline. Veins pale brown.
Length of body, 12·5 mm.; tegmen, 12 mm.
The single known specimen of this, our smallest cicada, was discovered at Mount Grey, Canterbury, in November, 1917, by Mr. C. Lindsay, to whom I dedicate it with much pleasure. The insect was found on a clay-surface where its colouring rendered detection extremely difficult.
Type ♂, Myers collection, Wellington.
Note.—Since the above was written Mr. Lindsay has given me another male of P. lindsayi and shown me a third, both collected by himself and his brother, Mr. S. Lindsay.
Pauropsalta maorica n. sp.
♀. Brownish-pink marked with black; the abdomen almost wholly black. Vertex black, anteriorly and laterad terra-cotta; sloping abruptly ventrad in front of the posterior ocelli; clothed with sparse golden pubescence and long black hairs. Ocelli pinkish-amber. Eyes overlapping the pronotum caudad, greyish-olive marked with castaneous. Antennae black. Frons reddish with seven black wavy transverse ridges. Rostrum stramineous, darkening distally and reaching to middle coxae. Genae densely clothed with long white hairs. Coxae reddish with black markings. Pronotum clothed, especially laterally, with sparse shining golden pubescence. A triangular spot on fore-border, an irregular median spot on posterior border, and two oblique impressed lines on each side, black. Remainder of pronotum greenish-pink. Mesonotum black, with very sparse golden pubescence. A trapezoidal brownish-pink spot on each side of middle. Cruciform elevation brownish-pink. Abdomen dull black, almost glabrous; the segmental margins of the posterior five or six terga reddish. Penultimate and ultimate segments very broadly edged with red, farming a red cincture and a red tip to the abdomen. Ovipositor not projecting beyond the outline of the abdomen. Ventral surface pale-reddish with pallid-yellowish segmental margins. Ovipositor darker, with numerous black hairs. Legs reddish, the anterior femora with fuscous streaks. Posterior tibiae with five long spines (exclusive of apical coronet)—three inner and two outer. Tegmina and wings hyaline. Costa red. Veins brownish-pink, darkening distally.
Length of body, 13 mm.; tegmen, 13·5 mm.
One female of this very distinct species taken at Nelson, 29th December. 1920, by Mr. A. Philpott, of the Cawthron Institute.