Family Delphacidae Leech, 1815

Subfamily Delphacinae Leech, 1815

Tribe Delphacini Leech, 1815

Genus Parkana Beamer 1950

Distribution: Western USA and adjacent Canada - probably associated with a specific mountain habitat.

Type species: Parkana alata Beamer, 1950.

Recognized species

Only one species is in this genus

Parkana alata Beamer, 1950 - USA: Arizona, Montana, Utah, Wyoming; Canada: British Columbia

Recorded Hosts: None.

Economic Importance:

Limited, this is an uncommon species of no known economic importance.

Recognition

Sexually dimorphic, with very distinctive male genitalia.  The male pygofer appears ventrally compressed in lateral view and the opening bears asymmetrical median processes (median processes are seen in very few genera, with Pissonotus, Scolopygos, and Perkinsiella the most obvious.  The parameres are quite unusual.

Male

Parkana alata (All photos by Kimberley Shropshire, Dept. of Entomology, University of Delaware)

Pygofer

Aedeagus + parameres removed

Parkana alata - Female

Molecular resources: None

Select references

Beamer, R.H. 1950. Five new genera of delphacine fulgorids (Homoptera - Fulgoridae - Delphacinae). Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society 23(4): 128-133.