''Pyrops delessertii'' is a species of true bug in the family

Fulgoridae The family Fulgoridae is a large group of hemipteran insects, especially abundant and diverse in the tropics, containing over 125 genera worldwide. They are mostly of moderate to large size, many with a superficial resemblance to Lepidoptera due t ...

, in the genus ''

Pyrops ''Pyrops'' is a genus of planthoppers that occur primarily in southeast Asia, containing about 70 species. They are fairly large insects, with much of the length due to an elongated, upcurving, snout-like projection of the head. The wings are gen ...

'' which are sometimes called "lanternflies". This species is endemic to peninsular India, mainly in the Western Ghats. Pyrops delessertii gkvk

Description

The head, its snout, the

mesothorax The mesothorax is the middle of the three segments of the thorax of hexapods, and bears the second pair of legs. Its principal sclerites (exoskeletal plates) are the mesonotum (dorsal), the mesosternum ( ventral), and the mesopleuron (lateral) ...

, abdomen, and legs are all blue. The snout has a few white spots and the

prothorax The prothorax is the foremost of the three segments in the thorax of an insect, and bears the first pair of legs. Its principal sclerites (exoskeletal plates) are the pronotum (dorsal), the prosternum ( ventral), and the propleuron (lateral) on ...

is reddish. The base of the hindwing is also blue. The forewing, which is also called the tegmen (plural tegmina) is black with pale veins and yellow unbordered spots. It differs significantly in pattern, colours and length of the "snout" from '' Pyrops maculatus'' and is sometimes treated as a subspecies of ''P. maculatus''.

Distribution

The species is found in the Western Ghats and the Nilgiris.

Adolphe Delessert Adolphe François Delessert (15 September 1809 – 6 April 1869) was a French explorer and naturalist. A nephew of Baron Benjamin Delessert, he accompanied Perrottet on a journey to India and Southeast Asia. During the course of five years th ...

who discovered the species in the Nilgiris noted that it tended to be found along riverine forests and that it was hard to capture.

References

External links

FLOW database
delessertii Insects of India Insects described in 1840 Taxa named by Félix Édouard Guérin-Méneville {{Fulgoridae-stub