Family Delphacidae

Subfamily Delphacinae

Tribe Delphacini

 

Distribution: Holarctic.

Type species: Delphax aubei Perris, 1857.

Generic synonym:

Pinodoxa Anufriev, 1991 (Type species Pinodoxa pinanorum Anufriev, 1991); Syn. By Hamilton and Kwon, 2010: 422.

Recognized species

Note: Hamilton

Five currently recognized species worldwide as follows:

New World (sensu Hamilton & Kwon 2010)

Muirodelphax arvensis (Fitch, 1851) (As senior synonym of Delphacodes campestris) - widespread north of Mexico; California to South Carolina north to Yukon territory.

Muirodelphax atralabis (Beamer, 1948) - USA: New Hampshire, North Carolina, Tennessee

Muirodelphax parvula (Ball, 1902) - USA: Iowa, Kansas, Illinois, Missouri; Canada: Ontario

Muirodelphax unda (Metcalf, 1923) - USA: NH; Canada: Nova Scotia, Quebec, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick

Old World (including species transferred from Pinodoxa)

 

Muirodelphax altaica (Vilbaste, 1965) - Russia (Altai Mts)
Muirodelphax amol Dlabola, 1981 - Iran
Muirodelphax atratus Vilbaste, 1968 - Russia (Maritime Territory)
Muirodelphax aubei (Perris, 1857) -  Widespread in Palearctic, throughout Europe, Middle East, North Africa, Asia

Muirodelphax nigrostriata (Kushezov, 1929) - Russia, Turkestan

Recorded hosts

Mostly grasses, as follows:

Muirodelphax arvensis (as Delphacodes campestris) - Agropyron sp., Agropyron cristatum, Calamavilfa longifolia, Poa pratensis, Agrostis sp., festuca ovina, Stipa cornuta; Carex scoparia.

Muirodelphax atratus - Zoysia japonica

Muirodelphax aubei - Ammophila arenaria, Elymus pycnanthus, Poa pratensis

Muirodelphax nigrostriata - Zoysia japonica

Muirodelphax parvula - Andropodon scoparius

Host information from Wilson et al. 1994, Nickel 2003, Ding 2006.

 

Economic importance

While species in this genus are common and widespread, there appears to be limited economic importance to this genus.

 

Recognition

Muirodelphax aubei (the type species; Palearctic)

New World species

Muirodelphax arvensis (Delphacodes campestris) - male

Muirodelphax arvensis (as Delphacodes campestris) - female

 

Muirodelphax atralabis - male

Muirodelphax parvula - male

Muirodelphax parvula - female

 

Molecular resources

At this time Genbank has no molecular data for this genus, although it has limited data for Muirodelphax arvensis (as Delphacodes campestris) (here). BOLD provides barcode data for Muirodelphax aubei (here).  Urban et al. (2010) extracted 18S rDNA, 28S rDNA, wingless, and cytochrome oxidase I from Muirodelphax aubei, Muirodelphax arvensis (as Delphacodes campestris), and Muirodelphax atralabis.(as Delphacodes atralabis) for their analyses.

 

Select references

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

Dlabola, J. 1981. Ergebnisse der Tschechoslowakisch-Iranischen Entomologischen Expeditionen nach dem Iran (1970 und 1973). (Mit Angaben uber einiger Sammelresultate in Anatolien) Homoptera: Auchenorrhyncha (2. Teil). Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae 40: 127-311.

Hamilton, K.G.A and Y. J. Kwon. 2010. Chapter 19. Taxonomic supplement to "short-horned" bugs (Homoptera) of the Atlantic Maritime Ecozone. In: D. MacAlpine, (ed.). Assessment of Species Diversity in the Atlantic Maritime Ecozone. NRC Press Biodiversity Monograph Series. Pp. 421–431

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.

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].