Subfamily Stenocraninae and tribe Stenocranini Wagner, 1963
Family Delphacidae
Subfamily Stenocraninae
Tribe Stenocranini Wagner, 1963
The subfamily Stenocraninae consists of the single tribe Stenocranini. The Stenocraninae are generally of Holarctic distribution, although a few taxa are found in the Neotropical, Indo-Malayan and Afrotropical regions.
Hosts: A compilation of host plants for Stenocraninae is here.
Generic diversity and recognition
There are nine genera in the Stenocraninae, of which 5 occur in the New World. The four that do not are as follows:
1. Stenokelisia Ribaut, 1934 (Known from a single species S. angusta Ribaut, 1934 from France):
2. Terauchiana Matsumura, 1915 from the eastern Palearctic. Terauchiana is known from 4 species (T. aurantiaca (Dubovsky, 1966), T. nigripennis Kato 1933, T. sagitta (Kusnezov, 1929), and T. singularis Matsumura, 1915:
T. sagitta (Kusnezov, 1929)
3. Preterkelisia Yang, 1989 known from two species from Taiwan and China (Preterkelisia magnispinosus (Kuoh, 1981), and P. yasumatsui (Esaki et Ishihara, 1950).
4. Embolophora Stal, 1853, from Africa consists of 3 species (Embolophora britmusei Asche, 1983; E. monoceros Stal, 1855, and E. theroni Asche, 1983)
Embolophora monoceros Stal, 1855
Embolophora britmusei Asche, 1983
The 5 remaining genera in the Stenocraninae occur in the New World and each will have its own web page, linked from the list of New World species below.
The Stenocraninae was first treated as a subfamily by Wagner, 1963. Asche (1985, 1990) retained it as a subfamily in his extensive examination of the classification of Delphacidae. However, Emeljanov (1996) treated the Stenocraninae as a tribe of Delphacinae (i.e., the Stenocranini within Delphacinae), and Hamilton (2006), following Emeljanov, treated the Kelisiini as the sister group to the Stenocranini and proposed treating them as subtribes within the Stenocranini (i.e., subfamily Delphacinae, tribe Stenocranini with subtribes Stenocranina and Kelisiina). The treatment of Stenocraninae as a subfamily or as a tribe of Delphacinae (along with all the other subfamilies of Eudelphacinae) is largely a matter of convention, since the proposed branching pattern of the delphacid phylogeny as presented by Asche (1985, 1990) and Emeljanov (1996) is the same for the advanced delphacid lineages. The proposed sistergroup relationship between the Stenocraninae and Kelisiinae can be tested by phylogenetic techniques.
Urban et al. (2010) examined the higher classification of Delphacidae using 4 genes and morphology. Their work largely substantiated the phylogeny of the high taxa of Delphacidae as initially proposed by Asche (1985). Some support was found for the sister-group relationship between the Kelisiinae and Stenocraninae, although since the support was equivocal, they proposed maintaining these taxa as subfamilies until the issue could be more closely examined.
There are a number of features that help recognition of the Stenocraninae, although one of these features is not uniformly present within the Stenocraninae. A synapomorphy is that the members of the subfamily are ditrysic - which means that females possess two genital openings, one for the egress of eggs and one for copulation; however, because this feature is not easily observed, it is not that helpful for recognition. Stenocranines have a large, foliaceous and tectiform (tent-like) calcar (in contrast to Plesiodelphacinae and Kelisiinae), with a row of fine teeth along the posterior margin. Beneath the calcar, Asche (1990) noted that one of the teeth at the apex of the tibiae has been modified into a rectangular-platelike base (I have not checked to be sure this feature is widespread). Many (but not all) species have a greatly expanded portion of the ovipositor (see below). The arrangement of the male genitalia is perhaps the key to recognizing the subfamily: the aedeagus is sclerotized (membranous in Delphacinae) and only partially enclosed within a membranous phallobase (so that the apex of the sclerotized aedeagus extends beyond the membranous phallobase); the apex of the phallobase often bears an apical (or subapical) ventrally directed "horn-shaped process". Many Nearctic Stenocranus have an unusual modification of this arrangement. Unlike Kelisiinae, segment 10 usually bears 1 or 2 pairs of processes, and I have not observed any vestige of an aedeagal flagellum. Like other advanced delphacids, the tymbal of the male is sexually dimorphic and the apodemes of the 2nd abdominal sternite are directed caudad (not dorsad is an Plesiodelphacinae). Stenocraninae tend to have a slightly to distinctly forward-projecting head.
Stenocranus, the largest genus of stenocraninae, is not monophyletic and needs revision. A number of species, particularly those in the Pacific and Indo-Malayan regions, do not belong in Stenocranus, and probably are not in the Stenocraninae.
Left, base of calcar of Stenocranus minutus; right pygofer of Obtusicranus bifidus.
A. Gonoplacs expanded (Frameus porrectus Bartlett), B. Gonoplacs normal (Kelisicranus arundiniphagus Bartlett).
New World species
Genus species |
Range |
|
|
dissociatus Bartlett, 2010 |
Mexico |
obrienae Bartlett, 2010 |
Mexico |
porrectus Bartlett, 2010 |
Mexico |
prolatus Bartlett, 2010 |
Mexico |
simatus Bartlett, 2010 |
Mexico |
|
|
arundiniphagus Bartlett, 2006
|
USA: IL, MO, TN |
|
|
bicarinus Bartlett, 2006 |
USA: AZ, CO, UT |
bifidus Bartlett, 2010 |
Mexico (Federal District) |
|
|
Subgenus Stenocranus Hamilton 2006 |
|
felti Van Duzee, 1910 |
USA: ME, NH, NY; CAN: BC, AB, SK, MB, ON, QC, PE |
sandersoni Beamer, 1946 |
USA: IL; CAN: BC, ON, QC, SK |
Subgenus Codex Hamilton, 2006 |
|
acutus Beamer, 1946 |
USA: FL, GA, MS, NC |
angustus Crawford, 1914 |
USA: GA; Belize, Honduras |
arundineus Metcalf, 1923 |
USA: GA, NC; CAN: AB |
brunneus Beamer, 1946 |
USA: IL, KS, NC, SC |
delicatus Beamer, 1946 |
USA: IL, KS |
dorsalis (Fitch, 1851)
|
USA: CO, CT, DC, FL, IA, IL, IN, LA, MA, MD, ME, MI, NC, NE, NH, NJ, NY, OH, PA, SC, VA, WI; CAN: AB?, ON, QC; Isle of Pines (Cuba) [as S. pallidus Beamer: USA: IL, MO, WI, TN; CAN: AB, BC, MB, NB, ON, PE, QC, SK] |
lautus Van Duzee, 1897 |
USA: CT, DC, FL, IA, IL, KS, MD, MI, MO, NC, NH, NJ, NY, OH, PA, SC, TN, VA; CAN: BC?, ON, QC; CUBA |
ramosus Beamer, 1946 |
USA: FL, GA, NC |
similis Crawford, 1914 |
USA: AL, IL, KY, MS, NC, SC |
unipunctatus (Provancher, 1872) (nec. Beamer 1946: 5)
|
USA: IL, NH; CAN: ON, QC |
vittatus (Stål, 1862)
|
|
Incertae sedis |
|
maculipes (Berg, 1879) |
Argentina |
|
|
elongatus Bartlett, 2010 |
Bolivia, Brazil, French Guiana, Uruguay |
References
Anufriev, G. A. and A. F. Emeljanov. 1988. Volume II: Homoptera and Heteroptera. In: P.A. Lehr (ed.). Keys to the Insects of the Far East of the USSR in Six Volumes, Transliteration of the Russian title: Opredelitel’ nasekomykh Dal’nego Vostoka SSSR v shesti tomakh. Vol. 2. Ravnokrylye i poluzhestkokrylye. In: P.A. Lehr, (ed.). Keys to the Insects of the Far East of the USSR in Six Volume. Nauka, Leningrad.
Asche, M. 1985. Zur Phylogenie der Delphacidae Leach, 1815 (Homoptera: Cicadina: Fulgoromorpha). Marburger Entomologische Publikationen 2(1):1-398 AND 2(2): 399-910.
Asche, M. 1990. Vizcayinae, a new subfamily of Delphacidae with revision of Vizcaya Muir (Homoptera: Fulgoroidea) - a significant phylogenetic link. Bishop Museum Occasional Papers 30: 154-187.
Bartlett, C. R. 2006 (dated 2005). Two new genera and species of stenocranine planthoppers (Hemiptera : Delphacidae) from North America. Entomological News 116(5): 291-303.
Bartlett, C. R. 2009. Diversity in New World Stenocranine Planthoppers (Hemiptera: Delphacidae). Transactions of the American Entomological Society 135(4): 443-486.
Bartlett, C. R. and A. G. Wheeler, Jr. 2007. Kelisia and Stenocranus species (Hemiptera: Fulgoromorpha: Delphacidae): new host-plant associations and distributional records of eight sedge-feeding planthoppers. Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington 109(2): 400-415.
Chen, X. S. and A. P. Liang. 2005. A Taxonomic Study of Subfamily Stenocraninae (Homoptera, Fulgoroidea, Delphacidae) From China, with Description of a New Species of the Genus Stenocranus. Acta Zootaxonomica Sinica 30(1): 123-129.[Chinese]
Ding, J. H. 2006. Fauna Sinica Insecta Vol. 45 Homoptera Delphacidae. Science Press, Beijing, China.
Emeljanov, A. F. 1996. On the question of the classification and phylogeny of the Delphacidae (Homoptera, Cicadina), with reference to larval characters. Entomological Review 75(9): 134-150. [the PDF is really bad, but it is all I have].
Hamilton, K.G.A. 2006. The planthopper genus Stenocranus in Canada: implications for classification of Delphacidae (Hemiptera). Canadian Entomologist, 138(4): 493-503.
Holzinger, W. E., I. Kammerlander, and H. Nickel. 2003. Fulgoromorpha, Cicadomorpha excluding Cicadellidae. Volume 1. The Auchenorrhyncha of Central Europe. Brill Academic Publishing, Leiden, Netherlands.
Nickel, H. 2003. The Leafhoppers and Planthoppers of Germany (Hemiptera, Auchenorrhyncha), Patterns and strategies in a highly diverse group of phytophagous insects , Pensoft Series Faunistica 28, Sofia, Bulgaria.
Ribaut, H. 1934. Nouveaux Delphacides (Homoptera-Fulgoroidea). Bulletin de la Societe d`Histoire Naturelle de Toulouse 66 (2): 281-301.
Urban J. M., C. R. Bartlett, and J. R. Cryan. 2010. Evolution of Delphacidae (Hemiptera: Fulgoroidea): combined-evidence phylogenetics reveals importance of grass host shifts. Systematic Entomology 35(4): 678-691.
Wagner, W. 1963 [dated 1962]. Dynamische Taxionomie, angewandt auf die Delphaciden Mitteleuropas. Mitteilungen aus dem Hamburgischen Zoologischen Museum und Institut 60: 111-189.
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 information in the appendix].
Yang, C. T. 1989. Delphacidae of Taiwan II (Homoptera: Fulgoroidea). NSC Special Publications 6: 1-334.
