Family Delphacidae

Subfamily Delphacinae

Tribe Delphacini

Distribution: Mostly Africa, Indo-Malayan and Pacific.  Opiconsiva dodona reported from Jamaica, possibly in error.

Type species (in original combination): Opiconsiva fuscovaria Distant, 1917.

Synonyms: Corbulo Fennah, 1965: 68 was made a junior synonym of Opiconsiva by Asche 1988: 197.

Recognized species

This genus is represented by 14 species (distribution information is quite incomplete)

Opiconsiva albicollis (Motschulsky, 1863) - Japan (Kyushu, Shikoku), Russia (Maritime Territory), China, Turkey, Palestine, Canary Islands, Madagascar, Sri Lanka, Philippines, S. Mariana Is. (Guam), Palau (Koror), Yap Island, Indonesia.
Opiconsiva albimarginata Chen & Li, 2000 - China (Guizhou Province)
Opiconsiva anufrievi Kwon, 1982 - South Korea, Russia (Maritime Territory)

Opiconsiva brontes (Fennah, 1971) - Micronesia, Gilbert Is.
Opiconsiva dilpa (Kirkaldy, 1907) - Australia, New South Wales, New Zealand
Opiconsiva dodona (Fennah, 1965) - Sudan, New Caledonia, Sri Lanka, Australia (Queensland) (Pacific and SE Asia); also reported Jamaica
Opiconsiva fuscovaria (Distant, 1917) - Seychelles
Opiconsiva guamensis (Metcalf, 1946) - Micronesia, Mariana Is., Guam, Palau, Yap Is., Caroline Atolls, Marshal Islands, Gilbert Island.
Opiconsiva koreacola (Kwon, 1982) - China, Korea
Opiconsiva messalina (Fennah, 1971) - Micronesia, Wake Atoll

Opiconsiva nigra Ding and Tian, 1980 - south China
Opiconsiva paludum (Kirkaldy, 1910) - Fiji, Indonesia, Laysan Island, Philippine Islands, Sri Lanka, Australia (Queensland), Samoa; Hawaii (Oahu - introduced).
Opiconsiva sameshimai (Matsumura & Ishihara, 1945) - Japan (Kyushu), Taiwan, South Pacific: Mariana Is.
Opiconsiva tangira (Matsumura, 1910) - Morocco, Palestine, Italy, Guinea, Nigeria, Sudan

Economic importance: Probably limited, although some species are widespread, disperse well, and could be accidently introduced.

Host plants:

Opiconsiva albicollis - Paspalum distichum L. (knotgrass)

Opiconsiva nigra - Paspalum distichum L.

Opiconsiva paludum - Bacopa monnieri (L.) Pennell (as Herpestis monnieri) (Scrophulariaceae, Water Hyssop), Juncus sp., sedges

Recognition

Not expected in the New World.  Superficially similar to Chionomus.  Asche (1988: 198) notes that "....limits between these species (if there are any) are not very clearly expressed in literature and should be newly defined." Ding (2006) provides a key to the four species in China.

Opiconsiva dodona

Opiconsiva tangira

Molecular resources:

Genbank has information for an undetermined Opiconsiva here.  Bold does not have any barcode data for this genus. Urban et al. (2010) sequenced 18S rDNA, 28S rDNA, wingless, and cytochrome oxidase I for an undetermined Opicosova species for their analyses.

Selected References

Asche, M. 1988. Delphacidae from Cote d'Ivoire (Homoptera, Fulgoroidea). Revue Francaise d'Entomologie (Nouvelle Serie) 10(2): 151-231.

Chen, X. S. and Z. Z. Li. 2000. One new species of the genus Opiconsiva (Homoptera: Delphacidae) from China. Entomotaxonomia 22 (1): 20-22.

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

Fennah, R. G. 1969a. Delphacidae (Homoptera: Fulgoroidea) from the Sudan Republic. Acta Entomologica Fennica 26:1-78.

Fennah, R. G. 1969b. Fulgoroidea (Homoptera) from New Caledonia and the Loyalty Islands. Pacific Insects Monograph 21:1-116.1975

Fennah, R. G. 1975. Homoptera: Delphacidae from Ceylon. Entomologica Scandinavica (Supplement) 4: 79-136.

Kwon, Y. J. 1982. New and little known planthoppers of the family Delphacidae (Homoptera: Auchenorrhyncha). Korean Journal of Entomology 12(1): 1-11.

Yang, C. T. 1989. Delphacidae of Taiwan II (Homoptera: Fulgoroidea). NSC Special Publications 6: 1-334.