Family Fulgoridae

Subfamily Poiocerinae

Tribe Poiocerini Haupt, 1929

Subtribe Calyptoproctina Metcalf, 1938

Genus Cyrpoptus Stål, 1862

Type species (in original combination): Cyrpoptus suavis Stål, 1862.

Synonyms: 

    = Pelidnopepla Stål, 1869; status (subgenus) by O’Brien 1985: 661.
    = Tomintus Stål, 1864; status (subgenus) by O’Brien 1985: 661.

 

Distribution: US (especially south) and Central America.

Recognized species

This genus has 11 species, of which 5 are found north of Mexico.

Cyrpoptus belfragei Stål, 1869 - USA: AL, DE, FL, GA, IL, KS, LA, MD, MO, MS, MT?, NC, OH, OK, SC, TN, TX, VA; Belize, Costa Rica?, Cuba?, Mexico (Campeche, Hidalgo, San Luis Potosí, Yucatán); Honduras

Cyrpoptus dubius Kramer, 1978 - Mexico

Cyrpoptus ferruginosus Stål, 1869 - Mexico

Cyrpoptus metcalfi Ball, 1933 - USA: AZ, CA, NV; Belize, Mexico (Baja California, Baja California Sur, Jalisco, Sinaloa, Sonora)

Cyrpoptus obscurus Metcalf, 1938 - Brazil, Panama

Cyrpoptus obtusus (Valdes Ragues, 1910) - Cuba

Cyrpoptus pudicus (Stål, 1861) - USA: AZ, TX; Mexico (Campeche, Chiapas, Michoacán, Morales, Nayarit, Nuevo León, Puebla, San Luis Potosí, Sonora, Tamaulipas, Tlaxcala, Yucatán), Brazil, Costa Rica, Honduras.
    = Calyptoproctus pudicus Stål, 1861a: 149.
    = Tomintus pudicus (Stål, 1861); comb. by Stål 1864: 49.
    = Cyrpoptus nubeculosus Stål, 1869: 240: syn. by O’Brien 1985: 661.
    = Cyrpoptus pudicus (Stål, 1861); comb. by O’Brien 1985: 661.

Cyrpoptus reineckei Van Duzee, 1909 - USA: AL, FL, GA, LA, MS, NC, SC, TX

Cyrpoptus ruficrus Kramer, 1978 - Cuba

Cyrpoptus suavis Stål, 1862 - Mexico, Belize, Guatamala, Costa Rica, Panama
Cyrpoptus vanduzeei Ball, 1933 - USA: AZ, NM, TX; Mexico (Baja California Sur, Chihuahua, Sinaloa)

Economic Importance:

Limited.

Known host plants: 

Cyrpoptus belfragei - Eragrostis curvula (Schrad.) Nees (weeping lovegrass, Poaceae), Muhlenbergia reverchonii Vasey & Scribn. (seep muhly), Piptochaetium avenaceum (L.) Parodi (blackseed speargrass); Pinus sp. (pine, Pinaceae)

Cyrpoptus metcalfi - Pluchea sericea (Nutt.) Coville (arrowweed, Asteraceae), Prosopis (mesquite, Fabaceae)

Cyrpoptus reineckei - Panicum repens L. (torpedo grass), Muhlenbergia filipes M.A. Curtis (gulfhairawn muhly, as Muhlenbergia capillaris var. filipes), Andropogon glaucopsis Elliott (purple bluestem), Andropogon gyrans Ashe (Elliott's bluestem), Andropogon virginicus L. (broomsedge bluestem), Spartina bakeri Merr. (sand cordgrass), Eragrostis curvula (Schrad.) Nees, Deschampsia flexuosa (L.) Trin. (wavy hairgrass)

Cyrpoptus vanduzeei - Muhlenbergia porteri Scribn. ex Beal (bush muhly), Prosopis glandulosa Torr. (honey mesquite)

Host from Wheeler & Wilson (2005, 2010), Wilson et al. (1994); plant names from USDA PLANTS or Tropicos.

Recognition:

head not strongly produced, head with eyes equal or broader than pronotum but not exceeding width of closed forewings; blunt spur on posterior margin of head behind eye overlapping margin of pronotum.

This genus was revised by Kramer (1978), although additional synonymies were made by O'Brien (1985)

Cyrpoptus belfragei (photographs by Kimberley Shropshire, University of Delaware [scale = 1mm]).

 

Cyrpoptus vanduzeei

 

This genus is here on bugguide.

Collecting

Cyrpoptus is most readily collected sweeping or beating host plants.  Wheeler & Wilson (2005) collected planthoppers holding a white enamel pan at the base of a grass, striking the crown with an ax handle and collecting dislodged planthoppers.

Molecular resources: Genbank has several genes for Cyrpoptus suavis; Barcode of life has data for Cyrpoptus belfragei, C. metcalfi, C. pudicus, C. reineckei, C. vanduzeei.

 

Selected references:

Ball, E. D. 1933. Notes on the Fulgoridae with some new species. Psyche 40: 145-150.

Dozier, H. L. 1928 [dated 1922 or 1926]. The Fulgoridae or planthoppers of Mississippi, including those of possible occurrence. Technical Bulletin of the Mississippi Agricultural Experiment Station 14: 1-152.

Kramer, J. P. 1978. Taxonomic study of the American planthopper genus Cyrpoptus (Homoptera: Fulgoroidea: Fulgoridae). Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington. 91(1): 303-335.

Metcalf, Z. P. 1938. The Fulgorina of Barro Colorado and other parts of Panama. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard Coll. 82: 277-423. [available from http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org]

Metcalf, Z. P. 1947. General Catalogue of the Homoptera. Fascicle IV Fulgoroidea. Part 9 Fulgoridae. Smith College, Northhampton, Massachusetts.

O'Brien, L. B. 1985. New synonymies and combinations in New World Fulgoroidea (Achilidae, Delphacidae, Flatidae, Fulgoridae: Homoptera). Annals of the Entomological Society of America 78(5): 657-662.

Wilson, S. W. and A. G. Wheeler, Jr. 2005. An African grass, Eragrostis curvula (Poaceae), planted in the southern United States recruits rarely collected native planthoppers (Hemiptera: Fulgoroidea: Dictyopharidae, Fulgoridae). Journal of the New York Entomological Society 113(3-4): 174-204.

Wilson, S. W. and A. G. Wheeler, Jr. 2010. Planthopper (Hemiptera: Fulgoroidea) diversity of weeping lovegrass (Eragrostis curvula), an introduced host of little known, rarely collected native species. Entomologica Americana 116(3/4): 98–106.

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.