Family Dictyopharidae

Subfamily Orgeriinae Fieber, 1872

Tribe Orgeriini Fieber, 1872

Genus Aridia Ball & Hartzell, 1922

Type species (in original combination): Orgerius compressus Ball, 1909.

Synonyms: None.

Distribution: Southeastern US.

Recognized species

There are 2 species currently in the genus (A. nodosa was moved to Timonidia by Emeljanov 2006):

Aridia compressa (Ball, 1909) - USA: CA, NV, UT
Aridia erecta (Ball, 1909) - USA: AZ, CA, NV

Economic Importance:

Limited.

Known host plants: 

Aridia compressa - Artemisia tridentata Nutt.(big sagebrush, Asteraceae)

Hosts from Wilson et al. (1994); plant names from USDA PLANTS or Tropicos.

Recognition:

Brachypterous, leaving several terga visible from above, tegulae hidden (all Orgeriinae); no callosity behind eye; head weakly angulate in lateral view, produced in front of eyes for distance less than 2/3 width of eyes, narrowed toward apex in lateral view; front without horizontal black band above frontoclypeal suture; tibiae not enlarged; areolet at apex of head well defined, pentagonal, enclosed by sharp carinae.

Keys to genus of US Orgeriinae in Doering & Darby 1943 and Doering (1955), although Emljanov (2006) revised some generic concepts (including moving A. nodosa to Timonidia).

Aridia compressa (All photos by Rick Donovall or Kimberley Shropshire, Department of Entomology, University of Delaware)

Aridia is not present on Bugguide.

Collecting

Collected infrequently, found by inspecting or sweeping hosts.

Molecular resources: As of this writing, data for this genus is not available on Genbank. Barcode of life has data on Aridia nodosa, but this species was moved to Timonidia

Selected references:

Ball, E. D. 1909. Some remarkable new leaf-hoppers of the family Fulgoridae. Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 22: 197-204.

Ball, E. D. and Hartzell, A. 1922. A review of the desert leafhoppers of the Orgerini (Rhynchota Fulgoridae). Annals of the Entomological Society of America 15: 137-152.

Doering, K. C. 1955. Some taxonomic and morphological studies of two genera of North American Dictyopharidae. University of Kansas Science Bulletin 37(7): 195-221.

Doering, K. C. and H. H. Darby. 1943. A contribution to the taxonomy of the genus Orgerius in America, north of Mexico (Fulgoridae, Homoptera). Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society 16(2-3): 64-98.

Emeljanov, A. F. 1983. Dictyopharidae from the Cretaceous deposits on the Taymyr Peninsula (Insecta, Homoptera). Paleontologicheskii Zhurnal 3: 79-85 [In Russian; translated in: Paleontological Journal 17(3): 77-82].

Emeljanov, A. F. 2006. Taxonomic changes in American Ogeriinae (Homoptera; Dictyopharidae). Zoosystematica Rossica 15:73-76.

Emeljanov, A. F. 2011. Improved tribal delimitation of the subfamily Dictyopharinae and description of new genera and new species (Homoptera, Fulgoroidea, Dictyopharidae). Ėntomologicheskoe Obozrenie 90(2): 299-328 [In Russian, English Translation, Entomological Review 91(9): 1122-1145].

Metcalf, Z. P. 1946. General Catalogue of the Homoptera. Fascicle IV Fulgoroidea. Part 8 Dictyopharidae. Smith College, Northhampton, Massachusetts.

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.