Genus Poblicia Stål, 1866 —The Speckled Lanternflies

Type species. Poeocera misella Stål, 1863, by monotypy, first specified by Van Duzee (1916: 78).

Stål, 1866: 138 [genus described].— Metcalf 1947: 61 [cataloged, full synonymy list].— Nast 1951: 270, 274 [erroneous combination, comparative notes].— Wilson & McPherson 1980a: 16, 48 [key, illustrated].— Wilson & McPherson 1980b: 29 [listed].— Wilson & McPherson 1980c: 15 [listed].— Porion 1994: 21 [cataloged, illustrated].— Moran et al. 2005: 8803 [endosymbionts].— Urban & Cryan 2009 [phylogenetics].— Bartlett et al. 2011 [listed, key, illustrated].— Urban & Cryan 2012 [endosymbionts].— Bartlett et al. 2014: 31–32, 169 [key, illustrated, notes].— Broadley et al. 2023 [parasites].— Gómez-Marco et al. 2023 [parasites].

Diagnosis. Relatively small taxa (~ 10–16 mm including wings), nearly black. Body broad and parallel-sided. Head strongly transverse (lacking a projection), just wider than pronotum. Vertex strongly transverse, much wider than long, carinate on all sides. Frons quadrate, approximately twice as wide as tall. Forewings entirely opaque with pale (often bluish) maculations. Hindwings broad, anal lobe well-developed, smoky, mostly translucent, proximally deep grey, often with 1–2 large pale (pale blue or white) markings. Fore and middle legs with femora and tibiae flattened. Dorsum of abdomen broadly orange or red.

Description. Color. Overall coloration is nearly black (dry specimens often paler). Head with anterior margin distinctly paler; body usually with minute pale dots. Forewings opaque, differing slightly in color and texture past nodal line, bearing pale (blue or white) maculations; forewings with pale irregular reticulate lines in cells from base to nodal line; distad of nodal line forewings bearing white dashes. Hindwings mostly smoky-transparent, apex darker gray, proximal portion near black, often with two pale large irregular spots (often blue or transparent). Legs black with irregular white spots, front and middle tibiae with 1–2 white bands (may be incomplete). Abdomen ventrally near black, dorsally bright red or orange.

Structure. Body length (including wings) usually 16 mm or less. Body in dorsal view broad and parallel-sided, in lateral view, head and thorax in similar plane (not appearing hump-backed). Head in dorsal view broad (including eyes just wider than pronotum) and strongly transverse (head projection lacking), anteriorly weakly convex, and posteriorly concave. Vertex much wider than long, carinate on all margins (carina appearing thicker anteriorly), disc depressed, surface roughened; anterior margin of head (dorsal view) appearing to have second anterior carina (i.e., with “double carina between forehead and crown”, viz. Metcalf 1938). Head in lateral view with face receding ventrally, inflection between vertex and frons sharp. Frons (frontal view) broad, roughly quadrate, much broader than high, lateral margins sinuate, laterally foliate; face surface rugulose bearing faint transverse grooves, with median carina and diagonally oriented lateral carinae (approximated at base, giving a V-shaped appearance). Frontoclypeal suture arched (weakly in P. misella), clypeus, median third longitudinally carinate. Antennae short, scape smooth, about as tall as wide (hidden behind lateral foliations of frons from frontal view), pedicel somewhat bulbous, longer than wide, bearing numerous conspicuous sensory plaques, flagellum bristle-like with bulbous base. Eyes bulbous, laterally projecting, subcircular (in lateral view), with callus behind ventrocaudal margin (not an expanded flange), lacking a vertical carina or spine in front of eye. Lateral ocelli conspicuous at anterior ventral margin of eye. Rostrum reaching or exceeding hind coxae.

In lateral view, mesonotum and pronotum flat and on same plane. In dorsal view, pronotum broad, about 1.5–2× broader than vertex along midline, anterior margin arched and carinate, posterior margin nearly truncate (or weakly concave), surface irregularly rugulose bearing distinct median carina and a transverse carina (sometimes obscure) just anterior to pronotum midlength. Mesonotum triangular, a little exceeding length of pronotum + head at midline, bearing a distinct median carina, with lateral carinae obscure. Tegulae conspicuous. Front and middle legs with femora and tibiae expanded and flattened, hind tibiae with 4–6 lateral teeth, apical ornamentation 7(2+5)-(8–9)- (6–9) (with conspicuous setae interspersed), with teeth at the apex of tibia large and those on the basitarsus and 2 nd tarsomere in uniform row with lateral teeth largest. Forewings broad, opaque and relatively short, costal and trailing margin subparallel, apex (at apical branches of RP and MP) broadly rounding, claval apex distad of midlength. Hindwings broad, maximum breadth near base, anal lobe well-developed.

Male terminalia. Pygofer in lateral view narrowly trapezoidal (narrower posteriorly), anterior margin concave, caudal margin convex, ventral margin diagonally linear, dorsal margin sinuate; in ventral view posterior pygofer margin concave (medioventral lobe absent). Gonostyli broadly spatulate, bearing a conspicuous laterally projected hook around proximal third. Phallus stout, bilaterally symmetrical, in lateral view horizontally bisected into a dorsal and ventral lobe, each subtended by a sclerotized element; dorsal region membranous and subtended by a slender pair of rods; ventral sclerotized rods broader and cupped, enclosing a ventral pair of inflatable elements (variably everted by the macerating process) with weakly sclerotized apices. Anal tube (lateral view) broad, apex rounded; in dorsal view broad, apex exceeded by bluntly conical paraproct (epiproct hidden).

Remarks. The fulgorid genera in the United States are few (i.e., eight, with five in the Poiocerini) and Poblicia is distinctive and easily recognized among them. The generally dark coloration, the relatively short and blunt forewings (bearing irregularly placed pale blue to white spots often combined with fine pale reticulations or dashes), with the hindwings fuscous proximally (with 1–2 irregular pale spots), and the dorsum of abdomen red or orange, help separate Poblicia from other similar genera.

Providing definitive diagnostic features that separate genera of American Poiocerini is complicated by the fact that most included genera are incompletely defined and may be heterogeneous with the included species poorly known. Also, the quantitative phylogenetic study of Urban & Cryan (2009) did not recover the Poiocerini as a monophyletic taxon, suggesting that the main tribal feature (the lack of a projected head) may be a convergent feature found in distantly related lineages. The most similar genera found in Central America may be the genera Acraephia Stål, 1866, and Alaruasa Distant, 1906.

Members of Acraephia tend to be much larger (the type species, A.perspicillata (Fabricius,1781) is approximately 45 mm [n=2]), with entirely dark forewings (lacking the fine pale reticulations or dashes) or with a bold pattern, and the hindwings are broadly fuscous, often with a large subapical transparent spot (e.g., Porion 1994, figs 20, 23). The color of the abdominal terga varies, but may be dark, yellow or pink (sometimes including the sternum).

Alaruasa is varied in its appearance with some species with boldly marked wings (often including a transverse bar near the nodal line), and sometimes with copious flocculent wax on the abdomen (e.g., Porion 1994, figs 6, 9). The hindwings of Alaruasa vary from uniformly fuscous (e.g., A. anceps (Stål, 1869), Porion 1994, fig. 5), to largely transparent with a dark distal border (e.g., A. aerata (Distant, 1887), Porion 1994, fig. 6). The species of Alaruasa that appears to be most similar to Poblicia is A. pallidoconspersa (Distant, 1905) (see Porion 1994 fig. 8; Distant 1905, Tab. 14, fig. 26) which has the forewings minutely spotted (“apical area immaculate” Distant 1905: 145), with the dorsum of the abdomen mostly dark (“lateral margins sanguineous” Distant 1905: 145); the hindwings are described and illustrated as a uniform color by Distant (1905), but shown as dark proximally, clear distally by Porion (1994, fig. 8).

We have not seen any definitive records (specimens or iNaturalist) of Poblicia from south of Mexico (but see comments under P. cribrata). On iNaturalist there are several records similar to Poblicia, although the individual appears relatively large with more elongate forewings (e.g., observation 38856037) that resemble Poblicia but are possibly Alaruasa pallidoconspersa. It is not clear whether the US species are distributed widely in Mexico or if there is one or more undescribed species (e.g., Figs 18C, D) of Poblicia in the Mexican fauna.

Etymology. Named after ‘gens Publicia’, a plebeian family in ancient Rome, and is feminine in gender (Dmitriev 2022).

Distribution. Southern USA and Mexico.

Species composition

Poblicia cribrata (Gerstaecker, 1860), revised status (replacement name for preoccupied Poiocera venosa Walker, 1851)— Obscure speckled lanternfly

Poblicia fuliginosa (Olivier, 1791) —Sumac speckled lanternfly

Poblicia misella (Stål, 1863) —Broad-headed speckled lanternfly

Poblicia thanatophana Kirkaldy, 1907, revised status —Orange-tailed speckled lanternfly