Family Delphacidae

Subfamily Delphacinae

Tribe Delphacini

Distribution: Widespread in the Neotropics.

Type species: Pygospina spinata Caldwell, 1951 (in Caldwell and Martorell, 1951)

Recognized species

Five currently recognized species as follows:

Pygospina aurantii (Crawford, 1914) - Brazil, Cuba, Ecuador, Guatemala, Guyana, Puerto Rico
Pygospina reducta Caldwell, 1951 - Puerto Rico, Surinam
Pygospina rezendensis (Muir, 1926) - Brazil
Pygospina spinata Caldwell, 1951 - USA: Florida; Puerto Rico, Cuba, Surinam
Pygospina spinigera (Fennah, 1945) - Trinidad (St Augustine)

There are also a number of undescribed species.

Economic Importance: Limited. Members of this genus are commonly observed at lights.

Recorded hosts:

Pygospina spinata - Typha domingensis Pers. (Southern Cattail, Typhaceae)

Recognition

Members of this genus are similar to Phrictopyga.  They are pale, very slightly flattened and usually with a pale stripe on the thorax. The genitalia are have a midventral process just below the pygofer opening. 

Pygospina reducta

Pygospina spinata

Molecular resources

At this time, Genbank and Bold do not have any molecular data for this genus. 

Selected References

Caldwell, J.S. and L.F. Martorell. 1951 [dated1950]. Review of the Auchenorynchous [sic] Homoptera of Puerto Rico. Part II. The Fulgoroidea except Kinnaridae. Journal of Agriculture of the University of Puerto Rico 34(2): 133-269.

Doud, C. W., S. W. Wilson, and J. H. Tsai. 1997. Descriptions of nymphs of the cat-tail feeding delphacid planthopper Pygospina spinata (Homoptera: Fulgoroidea). Florida Entomologist 80(4): 443-450.

Fennah, R.G. 1945. The Fulgoroidea, or lanternflies, of Trinidad and adjacent parts of South America. Proceedings of the United States National Museum 95(3184): 411-520.

Muir, F.A.G. 1926b. Contributions to our knowledge of South American Fulgoroidea (Homoptera). Part I. The Family Delphacidae. Experiment Station of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters’ Association, Entomological Series, Bulletin 18:1-51, plates 1-5.