First record of Tettigettalnamariae Quartau & Boulard, 1995 (Insecta: Hemiptera: Cicadoidea) in Spain.

Paula Simões,José Quartau,Vera Nunes,Raquel Mendes

doi:10.3897/bdj.1.e978

Abstract

Tettigettalna mariae Quartau & Boulard 1995 is recorded for the first time in Spain. Thought to be endemic to Portugal (occurring in the southern province of Algarve), the present paper adds its distribution to southern Spain, being an Iberian endemism. The acoustic signals of the new specimens collected were recorded in different localities of Huelva province, in Andalusia during August 2012. According to their present known distribution, specimens of Tettigettalna mariae tend to be sparsely distributed in small range populations in southern Iberian Peninsula, favouring wooded areas with Pinus pinea.

Highlights

IntroductionCicadas (Hemiptera: Cicadoidea) constitute a successful group of insects where males typically communicate during pair formation and courtship through acoustic distinctive
Cicadas (Hemiptera: Cicadoidea) constitute a successful group of insects where males typically communicate during pair formation and courtship through acoustic distinctive signals (Claridge 1985, Boulard and Mondon 1995, Simões et al 2000, Quartau et al 1999)
Recent work has drawn some concern to the diversity of species in the Iberian Peninsula (Boulard 1982, Boulard 2000, Puissant and Sueur 2010, Sueur et al 2004, Quartau and Fonseca 1988), showing that this region is an important hotspot for Mediterranean cicada diversity

Summary

Introduction

Cicadas (Hemiptera: Cicadoidea) constitute a successful group of insects where males typically communicate during pair formation and courtship through acoustic distinctive. Three species (T. mariae, T. josei and T. estrellae) have been described and recorded so far in Portugal only (Sueur et al 2004) but their distribution range in other parts of the Iberia Peninsula has never been investigated before. The current knowledge on the distribution boundaries of Tettigettalna species is far from being properly known and extensive field surveys for these cicadas are still missing. Some of these species are believed to have very restricted distribution ranges as is the case of T. mariae, a new species that was recently described (Quartau and Boulard 1995) and was thought to be endemic to the Algarve, the southern province of Portugal

Materials and methods

Discussion