Family Delphacidae

Subfamily Delphacinae

Tribe Delphacini

 

Distribution: North America

Type species: Bakerella maculata Crawford, 1914.

Recognized Species

There are 13 species of Bakerella as follows:

Bakerella angulata Beamer, 1950 - USA: Florida
Bakerella bidens Beamer, 1945 - USA: Kansas
Bakerella bullata Beamer, 1950 - USA: Florida, Louisiana, Maryland, Texas
Bakerella cinerea Beamer, 1945 - USA: Kansas, Missouri
Bakerella cornigera Beamer, 1950 - USA: Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia
Bakerella fusca Beamer, 1945 - USA: Arizona, New Mexico
Bakerella maculata Crawford, 1914 - USA: Mississippi, Ohio, Texas; Mexico
Bakerella minuta Beamer, 1950 - USA: Florida, Georgia
Bakerella muscotana Beamer, 1945 - USA: Kansas, Illinois; Canada: British Columbia
Bakerella pediforma Beamer, 1950 - USA: Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi
Bakerella penefusca Beamer, 1950 - USA: Connecticut, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania; Canada: Ontario
Bakerella rotundifrons Beamer, 1945 - USA: Kansas, Illinois
Bakerella spinifera Beamer, 1950 - USA: Georgia

Economic Importance: Limited.  Species of Bakerella are uncommonly encountered, although they may be locally abundant.

 

Recorded hosts

Presumed to be sedge feeders, particularly on Eleocharis.  Bakerella bidens has been reported on Carex sp.  Bakerella cinerea has been reported off Eleocharis palustris and Juncus sp.  I've collected Bakerella cornigera from Eleocharis sp.

 

Recognition (images are males, unless otherwise stated)

Distinctive, very small, usually short-winged with a rounded frons that usually bears spots.

Bakerella angulata

 

Bakerella bidens - Male

Bakerella bidens - Female

 

Bakerella bullata

Bakerella cinerea

Bakerella cornigera

 

Bakerella minuta

Bakerella rotundifrons

 

Molecular resources

At this time, neither Genbank nor BOLD provide sequence data for this genus (although there is a genus of plants is in the family Loranthaceae with molecular data in Genbank). 

Bakerella minuta and B. rotundifrons were sequenced for 18S, 28S, CO1, WG in Urban et al. (2010).

 

Selected References

Beamer, R. H. 1945. Four new species in the genus Bakerella (Homoptera: Fulgoridae). Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society 18(4): 149-154.

Beamer, R.H. 1946.  A new species of Delphacine Fulgorid with notes on four other species. Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society 19(3): 82-87.

Beamer, R. H. 1946.  A new species of Stenocranus and notes on a Bakerella (Homoptera-Fulgoridae-Delphacinae). Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society 19(4): 137-138.

Beamer, R. H. 1950.  The genus Bakerella in America North of Mexico (Homoptera: Fulgoridae). Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society 23(3): 102-109.

Crawford, D. L. 1914a. A contribution toward a monograph of the homopterous insects of the family Delphacidae of North and South America. Proceedings of the United States National Museum 46:557-640, plus 6 plates.