Gaeana

Gaeana
Gaena festiva
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hemiptera
Family: Cicadidae
Tribe: Gaeanini
Genus: Gaeana
Amyot & Serville, 1843
Species
  • G. annamensis
  • G. atkinsoni
  • G. cheni
  • G. chinensis
  • G. consobrina
  • G. consors
  • G. electa
  • G. festiva
  • G. hageni
  • G. laosensis
  • G. maculata
  • G. nigra
  • G. paviei
  • G. stellata
  • G. sulphurea
  • G. sultana
  • G. tenebricosa
  • G. vitalisi

Gaeana is a genus of cicadas, most members of which have colourful marking on their forewings, found across tropical and temperate Asia. Their bright wing patterns have been hypothesized as being a case of Batesian mimicry where the toxic models may be day-flying moths of the families Zygaenidae and Arctiidae.[1][2] It is closely related to the genus Tosena but is differentiated by the exposed tympanum and lacks spines on the sides of the pronotum.[3]

References

  1. ↑ Yen, Shen-Horn; Gaden S. Robinson; Donald L. J. Quicke (2005). "Phylogeny, systematics and evolution of mimetic wing patterns of Eterusia moths (Lepidoptera, Zygaenidae, Chalcosiinae)". Systematic Entomology 30 (3): 358–397. doi:10.1111/j.1365-3113.2004.00284.x.
  2. ↑ Green, EE (1910). "Remarkable mimetic resemblance between a Cicadid and an Arctiid moth". J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 10: 882–883.
  3. ↑ Distant, W.L. (1892). A monograph of the Oriental Cicadidae. Calcutta: Indian Museum. p. 104.