''Hackerobrachys'' is an

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Aus ...

genus of planthoppers in the family

Eurybrachidae Eurybrachidae (sometimes misspelled "Eurybrachyidae" or "Eurybrachiidae") is a small Taxonomic rank, family of planthoppers with species occurring in parts of Asia, Australia and Africa. They are remarkable for the sophistication of their Mimicry ...

. It has only one species, ''Hackerobrachys viridiventris'', making it a

monotypic taxon In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of Genus, genera, the term ...

. This species was originally described as ''Olonia viridiventris'' in 1863 by

Carl Stål Carl Stål (21 March 1833 – 13 June 1878) was a Swedish people, Swedish entomologist specialising in Hemiptera. He was born at Karlberg Castle, Stockholm on 21 March 1833 and died at Frösundavik near Stockholm on 13 June 1878. He was the son ...

, and was reassigned to the new genus ''Hackerobrachys'' in 2006 by Jérôme Constant.

Etymology

The genus name takes its first part from Henry Hacker, an entomologist who had studied this and other Australian eurybrachids. The second part is "brachys", a

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

word meaning "short", and is commonly used in names of eurybrachid genera (e.g. ''

Eurybrachys ''Eurybrachys'' is a genus of bugs in the family Eurybrachidae (tribe Eurybrachini). First formally named in 1834 by French entomologist Félix Édouard Guérin-Méneville, ''Eurybrachys'' is the type genus of the family Eurybrachidae. The spell ...

'', ''

Platybrachys ''Platybrachys'' is a genus of Australian Fulgoromorph planthoppers within the family Eurybrachidae. Taxonomy ''Fulgoromorpha Lists on the Web'' includes the following species: # '' Platybrachys aegrota'' Stål, 1863 # '' Platybrachys barbata'' ( ...

''). The species name "viridiventris" is

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

for "green belly" and presumably refers to either the colour of the abdomen or the

frons Insect morphology is the study and description of the physical form of insects. The terminology used to describe insects is similar to that used for other arthropods due to their shared evolutionary history. Three physical features separate insec ...

Description

The genus can be distinguished from Fletcherobrachys by the

, which is bulging unlike that of Fletcherobrachys. Additionally, the hind wings are uniform from base to apex. Adult males of ''H. viridiventris'' are 8.9–10.9 mm long, while adult females are 9.0–10.8 mm long. Overall they are blackish-brown in colour. The frons is convex and twice as broad as long. It, along with the vertex and the basal half of the clypeus, ranges from greenish-yellow to bright red. The

abdomen The abdomen (colloquially called the gut, belly, tummy, midriff, tucky, or stomach) is the front part of the torso between the thorax (chest) and pelvis in humans and in other vertebrates. The area occupied by the abdomen is called the abdominal ...

is bluish-green dorsally and yellowish ventrally. The

tegmina A tegmen (: tegmina) designates the modified leathery front wing on an insect particularly in the orders Dermaptera (earwigs), Orthoptera (grasshoppers, crickets and similar families), Mantodea (praying mantis), Phasmatodea (stick and leaf insec ...

(forewings) are flat and brown, while the hindwings are uniformly blackish-brown. There exists a second undescribed species, also from Australia, with a red head instead of a lime green one.

Ecology

''Hackerobrachys viridiventris'' is associated with ''

Acacia ''Acacia'', commonly known as wattles or acacias, is a genus of about of shrubs and trees in the subfamily Mimosoideae of the pea family Fabaceae. Initially, it comprised a group of plant species native to Africa, South America, and Austral ...

'' trees, including ''A. cunninghami'', '' A. fimbriata'' and '' A. leiocalyx''. Individuals can be found on leaves, stems and trunks.

References

{{Taxonbar, from1=Q18099595, from2=Q10515470 Eurybrachidae Insects of Australia Monotypic Hemiptera genera