jear2012 [Journal of Entomological and Acarological Research 2016; 48:4911] [page 1] Abstract This study was conducted in order to describe and measure the mor- phological characters of adults and larval stages of the cicada Cicadatra persica distributed in Erneh, Syria. Eggs, newly hatched nymphs, fully developed nymphs, exuviae and adults were described and measured. The mean lengths of eggs (1.9±0.1 mm) were the same as newly hatched nymphs (1.8±0.174 mm), whereas the mean length of the fully developed nymphs (3.1±0.185 cm) was longer than the adults. Several parts of adults’ body (males and females) were meas- ured. The results show that the mean of females bodies (2.60±0.118 cm) were larger than males ones (2.45±0.192 cm), nevertheless, there were no significant differences between them. Introduction Little is known about the species Cicadatra persica Kirkaldy 1909, which is distributed in Middle East countries and surrounding areas. C. persica was reported for the first time in Macedonia and its song was recorded and analyzed (Gogala & Trilar, 1998, 2003). Kartal & Zeybekoğlu (1996) described the internal and external structure of the reproductive system of its adults. Researches on C. persica distribution in Syria are limited. The only researches conducted on this species were by Dardar et al. (2012, 2013a, 2013b), Dardar and Belal (2013) emphasizing the morphologi- cal differences among egg nests and adult individuals of C. persica. In this study, pictures are given for adults, larval stages and eggs of C. persica and some morphological characters are measured. Materials and methods Collecting individuals Adults and larval stages of C. persica were collected from apple fruit orchards in the village Erneh that is located in Al-Sheikh Mountain in the south west of Syria. The eggs were collected by cutting the twigs that hold egg nests from apple fruit orchards. The newly hatched nymphs were collected by using the traps described by Dardar et al. (2012) and fixed in an ethanol and glycerin solution to maintain body soft to aid the study with a stereomicroscope. The fully developed nymphs were collected by digging in the soil during adults’ emergence period. Adults were collected by hand and with emer- gence traps described by Dardar et al. (2012) from the orchards at sunset and sunrise times, when the insects are collected in larger numbers. Morphometric study Morphological characters of adults and larval stages identified by Moulds (2005) were studied by using a stereomicroscope (Olympus SZ61, optical lens: 10X, body lens: 2X). The length of body of adults (n=11 males, n=11 females) and fully development nymphs (n=8) was measured in cm by a ruler; 34 and 30 morphological characters of males (n=11) and females (n=11) of C. persica were measured. The length of different parts of body of adults was measured with the stereomicroscope with a magnification of 0.67. The length of the body and different parts of the body of the newly hatched nymphs (n=6) was also measured with a magnification of 4.5. The real length of different part of the body was measured in mm. Correspondence: Marah A. Derdar, Department of Insects Research, Administration of Plant Protection Research, General Commission for Scientific Agricultural Research, Damascus, Syria. E-mail: marah.derdar@hotmail.com Hamzeh M.R. Belal, Department Plant Protection, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Damascus, Damascus, Syria. E-mail: cecehamz@scs-net.org Key words: Cicadidae; morphological characters; egg nest; apple orchards; Erneh. Acknowledgements: the General Commission for Scientific Agricultural Research supported this research. We thank the Biological Control Studies and Research Center, which is dependent to the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Damascus, Syria. We also thank the farmer Ismael Masoud in village of Erneh for permitting us to collect samples from his orchards. Received for publication: 16 December 2014. Revision received: 22 March 2015. Accepted for publication: 13 October 2015. ©Copyright M.A. Derdar and H.M.R. Belal, 2016 Licensee PAGEPress, Italy Journal of Entomological and Acarological Research 2016; 48:4911 doi:10.4081/jear.2016.4911 This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License (by-nc 4.0) which permits any noncom- mercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the orig- inal author(s) and source are credited. Journal of Entomological and Acarological Research 2012; volume 44:e Journal of Entomological and Acarological Research 2016; volume 48:4911 Morphometry of adults and larval stages of Cicadatra persica (Cicadidae: Hemiptera) distributed in Erneh, Syria M.A. Derdar,1 H.M.R. Belal2 1Department of Insects Research, Administration of Plant Protection Research, General Commission for Scientific Agricultural Research, Damascus; 2Department Plant Protection, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Damascus, Damascus, Syria No n- co mm er cia l u se on ly [page 2] [Journal of Entomological and Acarological Research 2016; 48:4911] Statistical analysis Means and standard deviations were calculated for the length of dif- ferent parts of adults’ body and larval stages using SPSS software (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA). Two independent samples t-test were carried out for the length of some morphological characters in order to compare males and females of C. persica. Results and discussion Morphometric study The eggs The color of the newly laid eggs is white (Figure 1) when newly laid and then it changes gradually into black light yellow (Figure 2), dark yellow, light rosy, and completely rosy (Figure 3) before hatching. The mean length of the egg of C. persica was 0.1±1.9 mm (n=6). The newly hatched nymph The body of the nymph is rosy. The head is conical and ends with a long rostrum. Ocelli are absent; there are two pairs of eyes and anten- nas on the both lateral sides of the head (Figure 4). It has sucking mouthparts. The pronotum is well developed and longer than mesono- tum and metanotum in order to support the fore legs to dig in the soil. The wing pads are absent. The sixth pairs of legs are transparent. The fore femur is large and has a vertical spine on the lateral side of the leg. In this age, we cannot distinguish between the genital organs of males and females. Each antenna consists of 7 transparent segments (Figure 5). The lengths of 24 morphological characters for newly hatched nymphs (n=6) of C. persica were measured (Table 1). The fully development nymph The color of the body is brown (Figure 6). The head is triangular and held two pairs of eyes and antennas. Each antenna consists of 7 seg- ments. The ocelli are absent. It has sucking mouthparts. Mesonotum is larger than pronotum and hold fore wing pads. The metanotum is small and hold the hind wing pads (Figure 7). There are six pairs of legs, and the fore legs hold 3 spines that are different in size on the lateral side of the leg (Figure 8). The abdomen consists of 8 segments end with the genital organ. The mean length of the body’s nymph was 3.1±0.185 cm (n=8). Article Figure 1. White eggs. Figure 2. Yellowish eggs. Figure 3. Rosy eggs. Figure 4. The newly hatched nymph. No n- co mm er cia l u se on ly [Journal of Entomological and Acarological Research 2016; 48:4911] [page 3] Article Figure 5. Antenna of the newly hatched nymph. Figure 6. The full development nymph. Figure 7. Full development nymph (ventral view). Figure 8. Fore legs of the full development nymph. Table 1. The measurements (in mm) of the morphological characters for newly hatched nymphs of Cicadatra persica (n=6). The character Mean±Std. The character Mean±Std. Body length 1.8±0.174 Tibia 3 0.34±0.014 Width of head capsulate 0.30±0.025 Tarsi 1 0.11±0.00 Pronotum width 0.375±0.0748 Tarsi 2 0.12±0.026 Coxa 1 0.22±0.031 Tarsi 3 0.15±0.018 Coxa 2 0.16±0.035 Claw 1 0.04±0.011 Coxa 3 0.22±0.031 Claw 2 0.05±0.006 Trochanter 1 0.16±0.027 Claw 3 0.05±0.011 Trochanter 2 0.13±0.025 Scape 0.11±0.008 Trochanter 3 0.12±0.030 Pedicel 0.11±0.010 Femur 1 0.25±0.033 1 0.10±0.005 Femur 2 0.21±0.070 2 0.08±0.009 Femur 3 0.27±0.034 Segments of flagellum of antenna 3 0.07±0.010 Tibia 1 0.20±0.034 4 0.05±0.005 Tibia 2 0.25±0.021 5 0.05±0.005 Std., standard deviation. No n- co mm er cia l u se on ly [page 4] [Journal of Entomological and Acarological Research 2016; 48:4911] The adult The adult emerges from the final stage of nymph by molting that takes about 30-40 min. The newly emerged adult is soft and dull. It remains quit at rest without any movement on her exuvia, and takes her natural color and her wings begin to harden gradually (Figure 9). Then it flies and leaves its exuvia (Figure 10) on the soil surface, trunks, or weeds. The body of adult is black; the head is triangular and hold two pair of compound eyes, 3 ocelli and one pair of antennae. Each antenna con- sists of 5 segments (Figure 11). It has sucking mouthparts. The wings are membranous with black veins and orange color at the base. The abdomen consists of 8 segments end with the genital organ. The male Thirty-four morphological characters for males (n=11) of C. persica were measured (Table 2). The female Thirty morphological characters for females (n=11) of C. persica were measured (Table 3). Article Figure 9. Molting. Figure 10. Exuviae of Cicadatra persica. Figure 11. The antenna of Cicadatra persica. Table 2. Measures (in cm) of the morphological characters for males (n=11) of Cicadatra persica. The character Mean±Std. The character Mean±Std. Body length 2.45±0.192 Coxa 2 3.61±0.305 Width of head capsulate 9.04±1.162 Coxa 3 3.45±0.317 Pronotum width 11.34±1.248 Trochanter 1 3.10±0.349 Wings span 7.02±0.199 Trochanter 2 2.40±0.366 Fore wing 3.20±0.109 Trochanter 3 2.04±0.258 Hind wing 1.809±0.083 Femur 1 4.78±0.606 Post clypeus 4.36±0.445 Femur 2 5.18±0.611 Operculum 6.96±1.000 Femur 3 5.30±0.761 Aedeagus 5.76±0.998 Tibia 1 5.18±0.663 Pygofer 6.454±0.656 Tibia 2 6.68±0.791 Upper lap 0.61±0.255 Tibia 3 7.78±0.885 Basal lap 0.57±0.127 Tarsi 1 2.61±0.353 Dorsal peak of pygofer 1.26±0.262 Tarsi 2 2.61±0.321 Claspers 1.80±0.475 Tarsi 3 2.64±0.443 Uncus 0.46±0.112 Claw 1 1.2±1.924 Sternite vIII 6.91±0.702 Claw 2 0.72±0.075 Coxa 1 5.49±0.737 Claw 3 0.70±0.077 Std., standard deviation. Table 3. Measures (in cm) of the morphological characters for females (n=11) of Cicadatra persica. The character Mean±Std. The character Mean±Std. Body length 2.60±0.118 Trochanter 1 2.88±0.252 Width of head capsulate 8.20±0.340 Trochanter 2 2.17±0.210 Pronotum width 10.91±0.712 Trochanter 3 1.82±0.236 Wings span 7.04±0.311 Femur 1 4.34±0.238 Fore wing 3.19±0.158 Femur 2 4.60±0.190 Hind wing 1.84±0.067 Femur 3 4.77±0.253 Post clypeus 3.94±0.298 Tibia 1 4.55±0.225 Ovipositor 9.68±0.531 Tibia 2 5.78±0.646 Abdominal segment 9.30±0.703 Tibia 3 6.97±0.320 Ovipositor sheath 3.84±0.361 Tarsi 1 2.34±0.192 Valvifer 2 4.97±0.450 Tarsi 2 2.34±0.163 Dorsal peak 0.94±0.143 Tarsi 3 2.34±0.197 Coxa 1 4.71±0.359 Claw 1 0.61±0.070 Coxa 2 3.45±0.163 Claw 2 0.64±0.052 Coxa 3 3.33±0.168 Claw 3 0.62±0.075 Std., standard deviation. No n- co mm er cia l u se on ly Conclusions There was no significant differences in the body length, wingspan, or pronotum between males and females of C. cicadatra (P=0.279, P=0.148, P=0.251). However, the results show that there were signifi- cant differences in the width of head’s capsulate and length of the third tibia (P=0.001, P=0.001); the mean width of head’s capsulate of the male was bigger than female’s one, while the mean length of the third tibia of the male was bigger than female’s one. References DARDAR M.A., BELAL H.M.R., 2013 - Morphological differences among egg nests and adult individuals of Cicadatra persica (Hemiptera: Cicadidae), distributed in Erneh, Syria. - ZooKeys. 319: 11-25. DARDAR M.A., BELAL H.M.R., BASHEER A.M., 2012 - Observation on some biological aspects of Cicadatra persica (Cicadidae: Hemiptera) in apple fruit orchards in Erneh, Syria. - J. Entomol. Acarol. Res. 44: 56-59. DARDAR M.A., BELAL H.M.R., BASHEER A.M., 2013a - A study on egg nests of Cicadatra persica (Hemiptera: Cicadidae) distributed in Erneh, Syria. - Ann. Soc. Entomol Fr. 49: 273-276. DARDAR M.A., BELAL H.M.R., BASHEER A.M., 2013b - Occurance of Cicadatra persica on apple trees Malus domestica in Erneh, Syria. - J. Insect Sci. 13: 1-5. GOGALA M., TRILAR T., 1998 - First record of the Cicadatra persica Kırkaldy. 1909 from Macedonia, with description of its song. - Acta Entomol. Sloven. 6: 5-15. GOGALA M., TRILAR T., 2003 - Video analysis of wing clicking in cicadas of the genera Cicadatra and Pagiphora (Homoptera: Auchenorrhyncha: Cicadodea). - Acta Entomol. Sloven. 11: 5-15. KARTAL V., ZEYBEKOĞLU Ü., 1996 - An investigation on the morpholo- gy of genital organs and oviposition capacity of Cicadatra persica Kirkaldy, 1909 (Cicadidae, Hemiptera). - Zoology. 1: 59-62. MOULDS M.S., 2005 - An appraisal of the higher classification of cicadas (Hemiptera: Cicadoidea) with special reference to the Australian fauna. - Records Austr. Museum. 57: 375-446. [Journal of Entomological and Acarological Research 2016; 48:4911] [page 5] Article No n- co mm er cia l u se on ly