The cixiid planthopper Hyalesthes obsoletus Signoret is an efficient vector of the stolbur phytoplasma, the cause of various crop diseases. In the field, this monovoltine species feeds on a wide variety of woody and herbaceous plants. It overwinters as larvae on the roots of its host plants. During this study, we collected adults mainly from lavender (Lavendula angustifolia Miller), bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis L. and C. sepium L.), hoary cress (Cardaria draba L.), and occasionally from plantain (Plantago cynops L.), toadflax (Linaria striata L.), bedstraw (Galium verum L.), and mountain savory (Satureia montana L.). Fertility of field collected females from sites at two different elevations differed significantly. Fertility at 300 m (50.6 eggs per female; N = 28) was more than twice that at 900 m (22.8 eggs per female; N = 19). Only one specimen of the species was found to be parasitized by an undetermined species of Dryinidae (Hymenoptera). H. obsoletus was reared in controlled conditions on lavender. Unlike in the field, larvae developed in the laboratory at the base of the host plant and on basal shoots. Egg incubation averaged 7 ± 1.2 weeks (N = 10). Total development time from egg to adult averaged 27 ± 4 weeks (N = 5) on lavender. A morphological description of the five instars is provided. The study was supplemented by scanning electron microscopy. Particular attention was paid to the structure of the wax-plates and the absence of compound eyes in the early larval stages., René Sforza, Thierry Bourgoin, Stephen W. Wilson, Elisabeth Boudon-Padieu, and Lit
Four species new to science are described from Vanuatu, namely Holophygdon nishidae sp. n., Idiocysta vanuatuensis sp.n., Nesocypselas minicysta sp. n., and Tingis parvoroe sp. n. New records are provided for six species, five of them being new to Vanuatu: Cysteochila idonea Drake, Stephanitis subfasciata Horváth, Teleonemia scrupulosa Stål, Tingis chazeaui Guilbert, and Tingis irregularis (Montrouzier). A key to genera and species of Vanuatu is added., Eric Guilbert, and Lit