Family Delphacidae

Subfamily Delphacinae

Tribe Delphacini

Distribution: North temperate North America, especially east; but three species currently in this genus from Taiwan and one from the Philippines.

Type species: Phyllodinus nervatus Van Duzee, 1897.

Recognized species

Five currently recognized species as follows:

New World

Phyllodinus nervatus Van Duzee, 1897 - USA: Colorado, Iowa, Michigan, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Utah, Wisconsin, Wyoming; Canada: Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, Saskatchewan

Old World

Phyllodinus affinis (Schumacher, 1915) - Taiwan
Phyllodinus aritainoides (Schumacher, 1915) - Taiwan
Phyllodinus kotoshonis (Matsumura, 1940) - Taiwan
Phyllodinus luzonensis Muir, 1916 - Philippines (Luzon)

Note: The genus Phyllodinus is probably best restricted to the North American Phyllodinus nervatus.  Both Yang (1989) and Ding (2006) treated Phyllodinus affinis, P. aritainoides, and P. kotoshonis as species of uncertain status.  All four of these species probably belong to Cemus; however, this cannot be assumed without review of the type specimens.

Economic Importance: Limited. 

Recorded hosts:

Phyllodinus nervatus - common hairgrass (Deschampsia flexuosa (L.) Trin.) (Poaceae) (Wheeler and Hoebeke 2008)

Phyllodinus nervatus - Poa sp. in alluvial floodplain forest.

Recognition

Phyllodinus nervatus can be a locally common species.  In my experience it is found mostly on grasses in mesic forests. It is a large species, usually brachypterous, having a spotted frons, enlarged front femora and tibiae and the teeth of the calcar are reduced and normally not black-tipped.  Among North American taxa it is distinctive, most similar to Pissonotus that share the expanded front legs (e.g., Pissonotus aphidioides , P. tumidus, P. tessellatus , and P. nitens).  Phyllodinus can be separated from all Pissonotus because it lacks the median processes on the ventral margin opening of the male pygofer, which are present in all Pissonotus. Aside from genitalia Phyllodinus is similar to Pissonotus in that the median carinae of the frons is forked on the frons, but in Phyllodinus the branching arms are diverging and distinct, whereas in Pissonotus the arms are closely approximated on the frons.

In the Old World, Phyllodinus is similar to several genera, but especially to Cemus Fennah, 1964.  Fennah (1964) described the differences between Cemus and Phyllodinus as being the former species having a many-toothed calcar and the forelegs not (or not as) expanded.  Other similar genera according to Fennah (1964) include Peliades Jacobi, 1928, Phacalastor Kirkaldy, 1906, Platypareia Muir, 1934, Asiracina Melichar, 1912, and possibly Pundaluoya Kirkaldy, 1902. Phacalastor has the first antennal segments flattened and Peliades does not have expanded forelegs.

Phyllodinus nervatus

Molecular resources

At this time, Genbank and Bold do not have any molecular data for this genus.  Urban et al. (2010) sequenced 4 genetic loci (18S rDNA, 28S rDNA, wingless, and cytochrome oxidase I) for Phyllodinus nervatus in their analyses. 

Selected References

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

Fennah, R. G. 1964. Delphacidae from Madagascar and the Mascarene Islands (Homoptera: Fulgoroidea). Transactions of the Royal Entomological Society of London 116(7): 131-150

Van Duzee, E. P. 1897a. A Preliminary Review of the North American Delphacidae. Bulletin of the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences 5(5): 225-261.

Wheeler, A.G. and E.R. Hoebeke. 2008. Conomelus anceps (Germar) (Hemiptera: Fulgoromorpha: Delphacidae) new to North America, with records of four other delphacid planthoppers new to Newfoundland. Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington 110(2): 265-283.

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