A ‘foreign’ cicada that is commonly found in several parts of South India has assumed an Indian identity. According to a report by Thehindu.com, in view of the differences in their morphological characteristics, the Association for Advancement in Entomology has corrected the longstanding error in taxonomic identification and has excluded the Malaysian species from the South Indian cicada fauna. The ‘discovery’ that involved correcting the mistaken identity was undertaken by a research team led by Travancore Nature History Society research associate Kalesh Sadasivan. English entomologist Francis Walker, who presented the original description of P. tigrina in 1850, had provided only a basic account of its coloration and morphology with no illustrations or any mention of the male genitalia. Their doubts were validated after the specimens were compared to the holotype and specimens of P. tigrina from Malaya that have been preserved at the NHM in London.

Source: The Hindu July 17, 2023 04:17 UTC