#3622 - Candicarina geroldi
<5mm long, but quite abundant on a Marri this scorchingly hot day in November, when I visited Whiteman Park NE of Perth with @purrdence and a friend. I've seen them around other places in Perth, but never had an ID until now.
Apparently the species - the only one in the genus - is only known from the immeadiate vicinity of Perth, and was described by Australian entomolost Birgit Löcker and Canadian-New Zealand entomologist Marie-Claude Larivière.
They've apparently done quite a lot of work on Cixiid planthoppers - another one of theirs is Aubirestus semicirculata from South Australia. The name of that one is derived from the first two letters of each word in Australian Biological Resources Study, a part of the Australian Department of the Environment and Heritage, who provided funding support for the project revising Australian members of the family.
I don't have any other info on Candicarina. The name might be derived from the Latin for 'bright keel' but I'm far from confident.
The Cixiid family is the largest in the Fulgoromorpha, with over 2000 known species. Nymphs live underground, feeding on roots, with a few feeding on plant roots that penetrate volcanic caves. Females in some species bear impressive "wax tails" at the tip of their abdomen.
