Gaeana atkinsoni

Gaeana atkinsoni
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hemiptera
Suborder: Auchenorrhyncha
Family: Cicadidae
Subfamily: Cicadinae
Tribe: Gaeanini
Genus: Gaeana
Species:
G. atkinsoni
Binomial name
Gaeana atkinsoni
Distant, 1889

Gaeana atkinsoni is a colourful cicada species and is the only member of the genus Gaeana that is found in southern India. Other species are found along the Himalayas and in Southeast Asia.[1] It is endemic to the forests of the Western Ghats where it emerges in summer. Males are brightly coloured with a yellow and black forewing and a bright red hindwing that is visible in flight.[2]

The species was described by William Lucas Distant in 1889 based on a specimen obtained from Karwar by E.T. Atkinson and named after the collector who was also accountant-general of Bengal and a president of the board of trustees of the Indian Museum at Calcutta.[3] The colourful wing patterns are thought to mimic toxic moths and a possible model suggested is Pangora.[4]

References

  1. ^ Wang, Jiali; Zhou, Jinrui; Zhang, Wenzhe; Wei, Cong (2025). "Phylogeny, diversification and biogeography of charming moth‐like cicadas in the tribe Gaeanini Distant (Hemiptera, Cicadidae)". Systematic Entomology. 50 (4): 713–735. doi:10.1111/syen.12676. ISSN 0307-6970.
  2. ^ Distant, W. L. (1892). A monograph of Oriental Cicadidae. Calcutta: Indian Museum. p. 107.
  3. ^ Distant, W.L. (1889). "Descriptions of a new Genus and some new Species of Cicadidae belonging to the Oriental Region". Annals and Magazine of Natural History. 6: 49–53.
  4. ^ Green, E. Ernest (1911). "Remarkable mimetic resemblance between a cicadid and an Arctiid moth". J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 20 (3): 882–883.