Family Delphacidae

Subfamily Delphacinae

Tribe Delphacini

Note: Paracorbulo Tian & Ding, 1980 is a synonym of Harmalia by Yang, 1989.

Distribution: Indo-Malayan, Pacific and Australian regions; one species introduced into the US.

Type species: Sogata thoracica Distant, 1916

Recognized species (Distribution records may be incomplete):

This genus is represented by 15 species and one subspecies as follows

Harmalia aculeatus (Yang 1989) - Taiwan, China

Harmalia anacharsis Fennah, 1969 - USA: Florida (introduced); New Caledonia, Indonesia, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, China

Harmalia clavata Tian & Ding, 1980 - China (New combination by implication Yang, 1989)
Harmalia commelinae Yang, 1989 - Taiwan
Harmalia cordata Yang, 1989 - Taiwan
Harmalia gayasana (Kwon, 1982)
Harmalia heitensis (Matsumura & Ishihara, 1945) - Japan, Taiwan, Vietnam, Philippines
Harmalia heitensis otho Fennah, 1975 - Sri Lanka

Harmalia obscura Ding, 2006 - China

Harmalia ostorius (Kirkaldy, 1907) - Australia: Queensland

Harmalia sanguinalis (Ding and Tian 1980) - China
Harmalia separata Yang, 1989 - Taiwan

Harmalia sirokata (Matsumura & Ishihara, 1945) - China

Harmalia tarasco Fennah, 1975 - Sri Lanka
Harmalia thoracica (Distant, 1916) - Sri Lanka, India
Harmalia tiphys Fennah, 1971 - Micronesia, Caroline Is., Palau Island, Sri Lanka

Economic importance:

Harmalia anacharsis, H. heitensis and H. sirokata have both been reported from rice, but their expected economic importance is low.  Harmalia anacharsis was introduced into Florida and was found breeding on Amazon swordplant (Echinodorus paniculatus Micheli, Alismataceae) (It is unclear whether this species continues to persist in Florida). 

Host Plants

Harmalia anacharsis, H. heitensis and H. sirokatahave been reported from rice, but that is unlikely to be their primary host. 

Harmalia anacharsis was found on Amazon swordplant (Echinodorus paniculatus Micheli, Alismataceae). in Florida.

Harmalia sirokata has also been reported from Echinochloa crusgalli (barnyard grass), Phragmites communis (common reed, Poaceae), and Persicaria thunbergii (Polygonaceae).

Harmalia commelinae is known from Commelina diffusa (climbing dayflower; Commelinaceae).

Keys to local faunas are found in Yang (1989) and Ding (2006). Two species in this genus are included in the key to species on rice in Dupo and Barrion (2009).

Harmalia anacharsis

From Fennah, 1969 (see below)

Harmalia ostorius

Harmalia tiphys

Molecular resources

Genbank has Histine3, 28S and 18s available for Harmalia ostorius here.  Bold does not have any barcode data for this genus. Urban et al. (2010) sequenced 18S rDNA, 28S rDNA, wingless, and cytochrome oxidase I for Harmalia ostorius for their analyses.

Selected References

Ding, J. H. 2006. Fauna Sinica Insecta Vol. 45 Homoptera Delphacidae. Science Press, Beijing, China.

Dupo, A.L.B. and A. T. Barrion. 2009.Taxonomy and general biology of delphacid planthoppers in rice agroecosytems. Pp 3-156 In: K.L. Heong and B. Hardy, (eds). Planthoppers: new threats to the sustainability of intensive rice production systems in Asia. International Rice Research Institute, Los Baños, Philippines.

Fennah, R. G. 1969.Fulgoroidea (Homoptera) from New Caledonia and the Loyalty Islands. Pacific Insects Monograph 21:1-116.

Fennah, R. G. 1975. Homoptera: Delphacidae from Ceylon. Entomologica Scandinavica (Supplement) 4: 79-136. [poor photocopy]

Holdom, D. G., P. S. Taylor, R. J. Mackay-Wood, M. E. Ramos, and R. S. Soper. 1989. Field studies on rice planthoppers (Hom., Delphacidae) and their natural enemies in Indonesia. Journal of Applied Entomology 107(2): 118-129.

Wooten, C. M., S. W. Wilson, and J. H. Tsai. 1993. Descriptions of nymphs of the planthopper Harmalia anacharsis Fennah, a species new to the United States (Homoptera: Delphacidae). Journal of the New York Entomological Society 101(4): 567-573.

Yang, C. T. 1989. Delphacidae of Taiwan II (Homoptera: Fulgoroidea). NSC Special Publications 6: 1-334.