Marius Descamps (1977) established the genus Whitea for four new species of forbhoppers (Orthoptera: Thericleidae) from the present-day Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape provinces of South Africa. The type species (by original designation) is W. fissicauda Descamps, 1977. Descamps's genus name is, however, preoccupied by Whitea Hutton, 1904, the name of a monotypic shortwing mould beetle genus (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Pselaphinae) from New Zealand. Whitea Hutton is itself a replacement name and was involved in another nomenclatural muddle, resolved by Brown (1964). The type species of the pselaphine genus (by monotypy) is Euplectus laevifrons Broun, 1893: 1425.