Aphrodes bicincta/makarovi

Aphrodes bicincta is often referred to as Aphrodes bicinctus - I'm not sure which version is current. According to British Bugs webaite Aphrodes makarovi is much the commoner of the two species.

These are two of a group of three very similar species, the others being Aphrodes aestuarina (a coastal species). The RES key does not include makarovi, which I think has been recognised as distinct from bicincta more recently, so is not useful for separating them. Mike Hackston's key lists all the species in the introduction to the subfamily but currently only keys to bcicinta and aestuarina, so using this key a makarovi is likely to lead to bicincta. The British Bugs website currently only has a page for makarovi and describes it as "larger, has pale wing veins" compared to bicincta and notes that females in particular are difficult to identify.

The majority of Aphrodes that I've found have been females. None had pale wing veins as obvious as shown on the photos of makarovi on the British Bugs website but that didn't seem sufficient to confidently name them as bicincta, especially as that's meant to be the less common of the two species and I judged that none could be confidently identified. More recently I found two males which I initially identified as bicincta based on the position of the appendages of the aedeagus and the second sternal apodomes - although the curvature of the shaft of the aedeagus was perhaps better for makarovi. Subsequently I have caught another which has identically-structured apodomes (so again suggesting bicincta), a similarly-curved shaft of the aedeagus (suggesting makarovi) but this time the position of the appendages appears to be better for makarovi too, albeit not clearly so. Externally all three males appear to match photos of bicincta (e.g. in the German fotoatlas) better than makarovi in wing pattern, but given the form of the aedeagus I do not feel the identification is safe. If makarovi really is much the commoner of the two species as is stated at the British Bugs website then surely the odds of my first three males being bicincta must be rather low.

Bierdermann and Niedringhaus describe and illustrate three differences in the male genitalia/sternites between the two species:

• Shaft distinctly curved in the central part in makarovi and relatively straight in bicincta. This isn't particularly clear from the diagrams and appears to be variable - one of their bicincta is distinctly curved albeit perhaps further up than implied by "central part" and one of their makarovi is not clearly curved. The shafts of all three male Aphrodes that I've caught were distinctly curved just above the appendages, so based on this character alone I would identify all three as makarovi.
• Insertion of lower appendages approximately at half of upper appendages in makarovi and approximately at lower third of upper appendages in bicincta. To my eyes the two males below caught in 2023 fit bicincta better on this character, especially the first one. However it is not very easy to see precisely where the appendages are attached. On the one I caught in 2024 the attachment point of the lower appendage appeared to be vertical, i.e. the outer edge of the lower appendage seems to be attached to the shaft higher up than the inner edge - and whereas the inner edge appears to be attached comfortably in the lower third of the upper appendage, the outer edge appears to be attached higher than the middle of the upper appendage. Overall I feel this one fits better for makarovi in this respect, but I am not completely convinced.
• Second sternal apodomes mostly more-or-less broad and short on makarovi and mostly slender and long on bicincta. All three males appeared similar and closely resemble the diagram for bicincta and not the corresponding diagram for makarovi. In each case the projections are long, square-ended and mostly membranous but with a sclerotised centre. Both diagrams of makarovi in Bierdermann and Niedringhaus show much shorter and more rounded apodomes. In one of the illustrations of makarovi the sternite itself (I'm assuming that the piece the apodomes come off is the entire sternite, but whatever it is) is much broader than on either of the illustrations for bicincta. This isn't referred to in the text so may be irrelevant, but on the 2024 individual below (at least) it's worth pointing out that the apodomes are not in quite the same plane as the sternite, so if it's held so that the apodomes are flat (and thus appearing at their full length) the sternite is tilted so appears narrow, but if tilted so that the sterite is flat the sternite appears much broader and the full length of the apodomes, now pointing up towards the camera, is not apparent.

The first four leafoppers shown below are the first two males plus two females that were caught with them (at light). The males were 5.5 mm long and the females were slightly larger. These males were originally identified and posted here as bicincta but I am no longer confident of that identification (the filenames still reflect that original ID).

male Aphrodes bicincta/makarovi showing close-ups of head from above and side, sternal apodeme and aedeagus (from left and below), Wendling Beck Environment Project (Norfolk, UK), 21st July 2023

second male Aphrodes bicincta/makarovi showing close-up of head from above, sternal apodeme and aedeagus (from left and below), Wendling Beck Environment Project (Norfolk, UK), 21st July 2023

female Aphrodes bicincta/makarovi, Wendling Beck Environment Project (Norfolk, UK), 21st July 2023

second female Aphrodes bicincta/makarovi, Wendling Beck Environment Project (Norfolk, UK), 21st July 2023

This male was also found at light, just under a mile away from the four above. I've seen verification comments on iRecord that suggest the ratio of the length of the aedeagus to the length of the leafhopper may help, though I don't have any references that clarify the expected ranges of this ratio for the two species. This leafhopper was 5.5mm long and its aedeagus was 796μm. Note that while I was photographing the aedaegus I somehow managed to break one of the lower appendages off, so on some of the photos below one is missing.

male Aphrodes bicincta/makarovi showing aedeagus (5 view, the last two close-ups after the left lower appendage broke off) and sternal apodomes (the second at top, first I think below, broken in two - the second oriented differently in the two photos), Wendling Beck Environment Project (Norfolk, UK), 26th July 2024