Study on oriental Cercopoidea (Hem. Homoptera)

Abstract

Distant (1908, 1916), Melichar (1903) recorded about 192 species distributed over 41 genera from the oriental region. Their concepts of the species category are sound and based primarily on external morphology and colourations. The significant characters of genital armature in the recognition of genera/species are absent in their works on Cercopoidea. The main object of the studies is to enrich the knowledge of the oriental Cerco poidea by delineating the genital structures of each species. In this paper, the 8 genitalia of 24 species belonging to 11 genera of the superfamily Cercopoidea, have been described and illustrated. The diagrams have been made with the help of camera lucida. The study is based on the material in the National Collections at the Zoological Survey of India, Calcutta. The permanent slides prepared in this connection, are in Z. S. I. collections at Calcutta. On this occasion are given the •data of other specimens in the collections. The descriptive terminology employed here is that used by Synave (1957) and the classification followed is after Metcalf (1960-62).