Family Issidae

Subfamily Issinae

Tribe Issini Spinola, 1839

Subtribe Hysteropterina Melichar, 1906

Genus Balduza Gnezdilov & O’Brien 2006

Type species (in original combination): Hysteropterum unum Ball, 1910 .

Synonyms: None.

Distribution: Southwestern United States and Mexico.

Recognized species

There are two species currently assigned to this genus

Balduza bufo (Van Duzee, 1923) - USA: AZ; Mexico (Baja California, Baja California Sur, Sonora; Cerralvo [Jacques Cousteau] Island, Tiburón Island)
     = Hysteropterum bufo Van Duzee, 1923: 192.
     = Kathleenum bufo (Van Duzee, 1923); comb. by Gnezdilov, 2004: 2.
     = Balduza bufo (Van Duzee, 1923); comb. by Gnezdilov & O’Brien 2006b: 221.

Balduza una (Ball, 1910) - USA: AZ, CA, CO, NM, NV, TX; Mexico (Durango, Nuevo León)
     = Hysteropterum unum Ball, 1910: 43.
     = Balduza una (Ball, 1910); comb. by Gnezdilov & O’Brien 2006b: 221.

Economic Importance:

Limited.

Known host plants: 

Balduza bufo  - Lycium (desert-thorn, Solanaceae)

Balduza una - Ericameria nauseosa (Pall. ex Pursh) G.L. Nesom & Baird (rubber rabbitbrush, Asteraceae; as Chrysothamnus nauseosus)

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

Recognition:

Hind wings absent or rudimentary, Body elongate (not rounded in dorsal view, vs Paralixes & Traxus), wings not strongly reticulate; Intermediate carinae of front present, raised; smaller species usually 4.4 mm or less; vertex not as deeply emarginate as Tylanira; intermediate carinae of frons converging dorsally; frons at dorsal margin about as wide as tall at median carina (about 1.05x) with dorsal dorsal margin v-shaped; vertex about 2x wider than long in middle; Forewings patterned, irregularly speckled; dorsoanterior portion of head raised in lateral view; dorsal margin of forewing concave in lateral view; southwestern (not southeastern)

Balduza una (all photographs by Kimberley Shropshire, University of Delaware)

This genus is not on Bugguide (but are there pictures of Balduza una under Hysteropterum). (I'm not absolutely sure that the insect in these photos is correctly identified, but it appears reasonable, even though the color is strange).

Collecting

Adults are taken by sweeping or beating.

Molecular resources: There is data  for Balduza una on Barcode of Life; there does not appear to be any data for this genus on Genbank.

Selected references:

Ball, E. D. 1910b. New genera and species of Issidae (Fulgoridae). Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 23: 41-45.

Caldwell, J. S. 1945. Notes on Issidae from Mexico (Homoptera: Fulgoroidea). Annals of the Entomological Society of America 38: 89-120.

Doering. K. C. 1938. A contribution to the taxonomy of the subfamily Issinae in America north of Mexico (Fulgoroidea: Homoptera. Part II. University of Kansas Science Bulletin 25(20): 447-575.

Gnezdilov, V. M. 2004. Two new genera of the family Issidae (Homoptera: Cicadina: Fulgoroidea) from North America. Russian Entomological Journal 13(1–2): 1–2.

Gnezdilov, V. M. and L. B. O'Brien. 2006. Generic changes in United States Issini (Hemiptera, Fulgoroidea, Issidae). Insecta Mundi 20(3-4): 217-225.

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.

Van Duzee, E. P. 1923. Expedition of the California Academy of Sciences to the Gulf of California in 1921 - The Hemiptera (True Bugs, etc.). Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences (Ser. 4) 12: 123-200.

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