Family Delphacidae

Subfamily Delphacinae

Tribe Delphacini

 

Distribution: Palearctic, except 3 missplaced New World species, one species reported from Africa, and one species from China.

Recognized species (distribution information may be incomplete)

A total of 15 species are currently placed in the genus, although some additional problematic taxa may be placed in Delphax.

NewWorld: All New World Delphax are probably placed in the wrong genus.

Delphax conspersinervis (Lethierry, 1890) - Venezuela

Delphax setosus (Germar, 1830) - Brazil

Delphax producta (Walker, 1851) - Jamaica

Old World

Delphax alachanicus Anufriev, 1970 - China (Alashan Desert)
Delphax angulicornis (Latreille, 1807) - Africa
Delphax armenicus Anufriev, 1970 - Armenia
Delphax crassicornis (Panzer, 1796) - Widespread - Europe, Russia, Japan, Tunisia
Delphax inermis Ribaut, 1934 - Afghanistan, Algeria, Cyprus, France, Isreal, Italy, Morocco, Spain, Tunisia
Delphax maritima Anufriev, 1977 - Russia, Mongolia
Delphax meridionalis (Haupt, 1924) - Greece, Italy, Yugoslavia
Delphax narbonensis Ribaut, 1934 - France
Delphax orientalis (Linnavuori, 1955) - Turkestan, Kazakhstan, Kirghizia, Turkmenia

Delphax pakistanica Mushtaq, 1998 - Pakistan
Delphax pulchellus (Curtis, 1833) - Widespread in Europe, Russia
Delphax ribautianus Asche et al. 1982 - Greece

Recorded hosts

Delphax species in the strict sense are Phragmites (common reed) feeders; also reported from Giant Cane (Arundo).

Recorded from Phragmites: D. armenicus, D. crassicornis, D. inermis, D. meridionalis, D. pulchellus, and D. ribautianus.

Recorded from Arundo: D. inermis, D. meridionalis, and D. ribautianus.

Economic Importance:  Giant Cane and Common Reed are important invasive species in the New World.

 

Recognition

No photos of the putative New World Delphax are available.  Delphax are large delphacids with patterned wings and long, flattened antennae.

Delphax crassicornis (det Wagner)

Delphax maritima (Courtesy Riley Nelson, BYU)

Molecular resources

Genbank has limited 28s data for Delphax inermis  (here).  Bold does not have any barcode resources for this genus. Delphax orientalis was sequenced for 4 genes (18S rDNA, 28S rDNA, wingless, and cytochrome oxidase I) by Urban et al. (2010).

 

Selected references

Anufriev, G.A. 1970. Two new Palaearctic species of Delphax Fabricius, 1798 (Homoptera, Delphacidae). Bulletin de l’Academie Polonaise des Sciences cl. II 18(4):201-205.

Asche, M. and S. Drosopoulos. 1982. Wer ist Delphax meridionalis (Haupt, 1924) (Homoptera Cicadina Delphacidae)? Marburger Entomologische Publikationen 1(6): 9-34.

Fennah, R.G. 1944. Nomenclatural notes on Lanternaria L., Fulgora L and Delphax, Fabr. Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 57: 43-44.

ICZN (International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature). 1961. Opinion 602. Delphax Fabricius, 1798 (Insecta, Hemiptera); Interpretation under the plenary powers. Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature 18(4): 246-248.

Melville, R.V. 1960. Report of the generic name Delphax Fabricius, 1798 (Class Insecta, Order Hemiptera) with proposals for its validation under plenary powers. Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature 17: 163-169.

Mushtaq, S. 1998. Description of a new species of genus Delphax (Delphacidae: Homoptera) from Pakistan. Pakistan Entomologist 20(No. 1/2): 51-52.

Ribaut, H. 1934. Nouveaux Delphacides (Homoptera-Fulgoroidea). Bulletin de la Societe d`Histoire Naturelle de Toulouse 66 (2): 281-301.