Family Delphacidae

Subfamily Delphacinae

Tribe Delphacini

Distribution: New World, western with a few northeastern records of Laccocera vittipennis.

Type species: Laccocera vittipennis Van Duzee, 1897.

Recognized species

There are ten recognized species in this genus:

Laccocera bicornata Crawford, 1914 - USA: Colorado
Laccocera canadensis Beirne, 1950 - Canada: Alberta, Saskatchewan
Laccocera flava Crawford, 1914 - USA: California, Colorado, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington; Canada: Alberta, Saskatchewan
Laccocera lineata Scudder, 1963 - Canada: British Columbia
Laccocera minuta Penner, 1945 - USA: Arizona
Laccocera obesa Van Duzee, 1897 - USA: California, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Wyoming; Canada: Alberta, Saskatchewan
Laccocera oregonensis Penner, 1945 - USA: Montana,  Oregon, Washington; Canada: British Columbia
Laccocera vanduzeei Penner, 1945 - USA: Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico; Canada: British Columbia
Laccocera vittipennis Van Duzee, 1897 - USA: California, Colorado, Idaho, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, New Hampshire, New York, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, Wyoming; Canada: Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, Saskatchewan
Laccocera zonata (Van Duzee, 1897) - USA: Colorado, Montana, Nevada

Hosts:

This genus appears to be grass feeders.

Laccocera obesa was reported from Thinopyrum ponticum (Poaceae, a grass).

Laccocera sp. was reported from Stipa cornata, Muhlenbergia richardsonis, and Puccinellia sp. (all Poaceae, grasses).

Note: Host information from Wilson et al. (1994).

Laccocera vanduzeei was collected from Weeping lovegrass (Eragrostis curvula).

Economic Importance: Probably limited; none have been associated with economic crops..

Recognition

The genus is easily recognized by the pitted frons and body (shared with Achorotile), but having the median carina of the frons forked near the vertex (different from Achorotile).  Some of the species can be challenging to recognize.

Laccocera vittapennis

Male

Female

Molecular Resources

At this time, neither Genbank nor BOLD provide sequence data for this genus. Laccocera vittapennis was sequenced for 18S, 28S, CO1, WG in Urban et al. (2010).

Selected References

Beirne, B. P. 1950. A new species of Laccocera from Canada and records of other Canadian species (Homoptera: Araeopidae). Canadian Entomologist 82: 173-174. [pdf is poor photocopy]

Penner, L. R. 1945.The genus Laccocera Van Duzee (Homoptera: Delphacidae). Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society 18: 30-47.

Scudder, G.G.E. 1963. Studies on the Canadian and Alaskan Fulgoromorpha (Hemiptera).I. The genera Achrotile [sic] Fieber and Laccocera Van Duzee (Delphacidae). Canadian Entomologist 95: 167-177. [pdf is poor photocopy]

Wilson, S. W. and A. G. Wheeler, Jr. 2010. Planthopper (Hemiptera: Fulgoroidea) diversity of weeping lovegrass (Eragrostis curvula), an introduced host of little known, rarely collected native species. Entomologica Americana 116(3/4): 98–106.

Wilson, S.W., C. Mitter, R.F. Denno, and M.R. Wilson. 1994. Evolutionary patterns of host plant use by delphacid planthoppers and their relatives. In: R.F. Denno and T.J. Perfect, (eds.). Planthoppers: Their Ecology and Management. Chapman and Hall, New York. Pp. 7-45 & Appendix [host references in appendix].