PROC. ENTOMOL. SOC. WASH. 94(3), 1992, pp. 336-344 NEW ATHYSANELLA (HOMOPTERA: CICADELLIDAE) SPECIES FROM SOUTHWESTERN GRASSLANDS: FURTHER EVIDENCE FOR THE IMPORTANCE OF PHENOLOGY AND TAXONOMIC IDIOSYNCRASY IN GENERATION OF BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY Andrew L. Hicks,' H. Derrick Blocker,^ and Robert F. Whitcomb' 'Insect Biocontrol Laboratory, Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture, Beltsville, Maryland 20705; 'Department of Entomology, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas 66506. ^fo^rac/.— Southwestern grasslands are a rich source of species oi Athysanella Baker; to date 128 species have been recorded. We now describe four new species. Athysanella (Gladionum) maycoba n. sp. was collected from short grasses in Sonora, Mexico. Athy-sanella (Gladionum) itawana n. sp. was collected on alkali sacaton (Sporobolus airoides) in the Four Comers area of the Colorado Plateau. Athysanella (Gladionura) raisae n. sp. was collected from hairy grama {Bouteloua hirsuta) in Durango and Zacatecas, Mexico. Athysanella galeana n. sp. was collected from saltgrass (Distichlis spicata) in Chihuahua, Mexico. We also illustrate a common undeveloped form of Athysanella {Gladionum) blanda. Discovery of these new species and the recent discovery of a species endemic to New Mexico gypsum areas confirm previous predictions oi Athysanella diversity. This diversity appears to be governed by a sedentary life history strategy, the isolation of host grass patches, and marked differences among regional climates that enforce phenological isolation. Future study will probably reveal even more diversity in the genus Athysanella. Key Words: Leafhopper, grasslands. Southwest, brachypterous, phenology We have previously reported (Hicks et al. 1988) that blue grama {Bouteloua gracilis Willd. ex H. B. K.) grasslands of New Mex-ico were partitioned by Athysanella Baker specialists into regions closely allied to rec-ognized climatic regions. Restriction of cer-tain species to short-grass prairie, high plains. Rocky Mountains, and Gila Moun-tains was documented. Other dominant grasses of the Southwest are similarly par-titioned, not only by Athysanella species, but also by species of Flexamia (Whitcomb and Hicks 1988) and other genera (Whit-comb et al. 1986, 1987, 1988). Given the brachyptery of Athysanella species (Ball and Beamer 1940), their high degree of host specificity, and the existence of a vast mo-saic of "climatic habitat islands" in the Southwest, where the genus abounds, we asked (Hicks et al. 1988) why there were not in fact many more than the 128 reported Athysanella species. In this and a compan-ion publication (Hicks and Whitcomb 1 992), we document five new species of Athysa-nella, confirming our suspicion that alpha discovery in the genus Athysanella may con-tinue for some time. In the following descriptions, we have as-signed "character codes" as described by Blocker and Johnson (1990a, b).
New Athysanella (Homoptera: Cicadellidae) species from southwestern grasslands: further evidence for the importance of phenology and taxonomic idiosyncrasy in generation of biological diversity
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