Family Caliscelidae

Subfamily Caliscelinae

Tribe Ommatidiotini Fieber, 1875

Genus Asarcopus Horváth, 1921

Type species:  Asarcopus palmarum Horváth, 1921.

Synonyms: None.

Distribution: One species adventive into California; Afrotropical, Middle East.

Recognized species

There are 3 recognized species (1 of which has been introduced into California):

Asarcopus euthyphro Fennah, 1949 - South Africa, Botswana
Asarcopus palmarum Horváth, 1921 - USA: CA (adventive); Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Israel, Mali, Sudan
Asarcopus phaedo Fennah, 1967 - Namibia, Lesotho

Economic Importance:

Found on date palms.

Known host plants: 

Asarcopus palmarum - Caryota urens L. (palm, Arecaceae ), Phoenix dactylifera L. (Date Palm), Phoenix roebelenii O'Brien (dwarf date palm), Phoenix canariensis hort. ex Chabaud (Canary Island date palm), Washingtonia filifera (Linden ex André) H. Wendl.

Hosts from Wilson et al. 1994; plant names from USDA PLANTS.

Recognition:

Body with few sensory pits, head not weevil-like, legs not modified

Asarcopus palmarum (all photographs by Kimberley Shropshire, University of Delaware)

Collecting

[?]

Molecular resources: As of this writing, no data for this genus appears on Barcode of Life or Genbank.

Selected references:

Doering. K. C. 1939 [1940a]. A contribution to the taxonomy of the subfamily Issinae in America north of Mexico (Fulgoroidea: Homoptera. Part III. University of Kansas Science Bulletin. 26(2): 83-167.

Fennah R. G. 1967. New and little known Fulgoroidea from South Africa (Homoptera). Annals of the Natal Museum 18(3): 655-714.

Fennah, R. G. 1949. New exotic Fulgoroidea. Annals and Magazine of Natural History. London. (Ser. 12) 2: 585-606.

Fennah, R. G. 1967. New and little known Fulgoroidea from South Africa (Homoptera). Annals of the Natal Museum 18(3):655-714.

Gnezdilov, V. M. and T. Bourgoin. 2009. First record of the family Caliscelidae (Hemiptera: Fulgoroidea) from Madagascar, with description of new taxa from the Afrotropical Region and biogeographical notes. Zootaxa 2020: 1-36.

Horváth G. 1921. Description d'un Fulgoride nouveau des dattiers. Bulletin de la Société d'Histoire Naturelle de l'Afrique du Nord. Alger 12: 179-180.

Metcalf, Z. P. 1958. General Catalogue of the Homoptera. Fascicle IV, Fulgoroidea, Part 15, Issidae. Waverly Press, Inc., Baltimore, Maryland.

O'Brien, L. B. 1988. Taxonomic changes in North American Issidae (Homoptera: Fulgoroidea). Annals of the Entomological Society of America 81(6): 865-869.

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