A new species of Purana Distant, 1905 (Hemiptera, Cicadidae), from the Western Ghats, with comments on the erroneous records of Purana tigrina (Walker, 1850) in south India

Abstract

A new species of cicada is described from south India. The new taxon, Purana cheeveeda Sadasivan sp. nov. is easily differentiated from all the other known species of the Purana tigrina species group based on its operculum apex not reaching beyond the anterior margin of sternite 3; tubercles on sternite 4 black and almost as large as those on sternite 3; relatively short rostral length reaching unction of abdominal sternite II and sternite III; the absence of dark fasciae on the transverse grooves of postclypeus, forewing venation, basal lobes of pygofer with large diverging triangular spines and the characteristic pentagonal uncus of the male. The status of Purana tigrina (Walker, 1850) from South India is discussed. The topotypes of the taxon commonly identified as P. tigrina from south India did not match the morphology of the holotype of P. tigrina. In addition, the study of the type specimen of P. tigrina demonstrated that the external morphology and male genital characters of the holotype of P. tigrina match that of P. tigrina from the Malayan region. Hence the type locality is mislabelled. This common taxon from southern India which has been traditionally misidentified is described here as a new species of Purana. As per Articles 76A.1.4 and 76A.2, of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (1999), the type locality of P. tigrina is hereby corrected as Malaysia. Based on the findings, P. tigrina is removed from the south Indian cicada fauna. The new species has some features common to both the Purana carmente group and Purana tigrina group, but most characters agree to Purana tigrina group, hence is tentatively placed in this group. The characters based on coloration may not be useful in species group classification in Purana, hence structural features like male genitalia and venation are taken to revise the existing species group keys. A modified key to the Purana species groups and members of the P. tigrina species group is also provided.