PROC. ENTOMOL. SOC. WASH. 99(1), 1997. pp. 156-161 A NEW SPECIES OF THE NEOTROPICAL GENUS LISSOSCARTA STAL (HOMOPTERA: CICADELLIDAE: CICADELLINAE) THAT MIMICS WASPS Gabriel Mejdalani and Marcio Felix Departamento de Zoologia, Institute de Biologia, Universidade Federal do Rio de Ja-neiro, Caixa Postal 68044, 21944-970 Rio de Janeiro RJ, Brasil. Abstract. — Lissoscarta beckeri, new species, a leafhopper that mimics wasps, is de-scribed from the states of Rondonia and Mato Grosso, Brazil. The new species can be distinguished from the other species of the genus by the following features: males with an elongate dorsoapical process in pygofer; aedeagus with a conspicuous dorsal lobe and without processes; paraphyses arched dorsally; abdominal sternum VII of females with a concavity on posterior margin. All members of the genus Lissoscarta have a strong con-striction at the base of the abdomen, the forewings completely hyaline, and the form of the pronotum similar to the mesoscutum of a wasp. The size and color are similar to those of wasps of the tribe Polybiini (Vespidae: Polistinae). Morphological comparisons and field observations suggested that at least six species in four different genera of that tribe could be models for L. beckeri. Key Words: Cicadellidae, Lissoscarta, new species, mimicry, wasps Six valid species of the Neotropical ge-nus Lissoscarta Stal were recorded by Young (1977). The type species of the ge-nus, L. vespiformis (Fabricius, 1803), has morphological and behavioral characters that enable it to mimic wasps (Evans 1947, Boulard 1978). The resemblance between L. vespiformis and wasps was first noted by Fabricius (1803) in the original description of the species (as Cicada vespiformis). The abdomen is strongly constricted at the base, the forewings are completely hyaline, and the form of the pronotum is similar to the mesoscutum of a wasp. When threatened, this leafhopper spreads its wings in a sim-ilar way to that of a wasp in the resting position, showing the constriction at the base of the abdomen. This behavior, in which the mimic suddenly exposes charac-teristics that resemble those of its model, is called "ostensible mimicry" (Boulard 1978). It is not found in any other known leafhopper genus. All the remaining species of Lissoscarta have the morphological fea-tures just mentioned (Young 1977), sug-gesting that "ostensible mimicry" is a char-acteristic of the genus. Unfortunately, no behavioral data are available for these other species. In the present paper a new species of Lis-soscarta from Brazil is described. Morpho-logical comparisons, as well as field obser-vations (J. Becker, personal communica-tion), suggested that wasps of the tribe Po-lybiini (Vespidae, Polistinae) could be models for the new species. The characters supporting this view are discussed below. Acronyms for collections in which the specimens used in this study are deposited are as follows: DZUP (Departamento de Zoologia da Universidade Federal do Pa-rana, Curitiba, Brazil), MNRJ (Museu Na-cional do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), and MZSP (Museu de Zoologia da
BioStor
