Introduction

The planthopper family Derbidae Spinola, 1839 currently comprises three subfamilies divided into 22 tribes (Bourgoin 2026). Approximately nine tribes, 41 genera, and 184 species of Derbidae are known in China. Almost all members of the family in China occur in the Oriental region, especially in southern China.

The genus Vekunta Distant, 1906 belongs to the tribe Cenchreini Muir, 1918. It was first established as the genus Temesa by Melichar (1903) in the Achilidae Stål, 1866. Distant (1906a) found that Temesa Melichar, 1903 was invalid, as it is junior homonym of Temesa Adams, 1855 (Mollusca) and, therefore, proposed a replacement name, Vekunta. Distant (1906b) later designated Temesa tenella Melichar, 1903 as the type species. Kirkaldy (1907) proposed that the genus belongs to the family Derbidae, a classification that has been maintained to today. The genus has been studied by Melichar (1903, 1914), Bierman (1910), Muir (1913, 1914, 1915, 1917, 1922), Matsumura (1914, 1940), Schumacher (1915), Metcalf (1945), Fennah (1956), Yang and Wu (1994), Liang (2000), Wu and Liang (2001), Löcker et al. (2009), Rahman et al. (2012), and Sui and Chen (2019), among others. To date, it comprises 45 species distributed across the Australasian, Oriental, and Palaearctic regions. Twenty-nine species are known in China, with records in Taiwan (24 species), Guizhou (four species), Yunnan (three species), the Xizang Autonomous Region (one species), the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (one species), Zhejiang (one species), and Hunan (one species).

Here, three new bamboo-feeding species, V. deflecta Yao, Sui & Chen, sp. nov., V. fodingshanensis Yao, Sui & Chen, sp. nov. and V. furcata Yao, Sui & Chen, sp. nov. are described and illustrated from Guizhou Province, China. In addition, V. fuscolineata is recorded from China for the first time. A checklist and a key to the males of the genus from China are also provided.