Family Dictyopharidae

Subfamily Orgeriinae Fieber, 1872

Tribe Orgeriini Fieber, 1872

Genus Deserta Ball & Hartzell, 1922

Type species (in original combination): Orgamara bipunctata Ball, 1909.

Synonyms: None.

Distribution: Southeastern US.

Recognized species

There are 7 species currently in the genus:

Deserta bipunctata (Ball, 1909) - USA: CA, UT
     = Orgamara bipunctata Ball, 1909: 199-200.
     = Deserta bipunctata (Ball, 1909); comb. by Ball & Hartzell 1922: 143.
Deserta fuscata Doering, 1955 - USA: CA, NV
Deserta obesa (Ball, 1909) - USA: AZ, UT
     = Orgamara obesa Ball, 1909: 199.
     = Deserta obesa (Ball, 1909); comb. by Ball & Hartzell 1922: 143.
Deserta obscura (Ball, 1909) - USA: CA, ID, NV, UT
     = Orgamara obscura Ball, 1909: 200.
     = Deserta obscura (Ball, 1909); comb. by Ball & Hartzell 1922: 142.
Deserta pinturensis Doering, 1955 - USA: CA,NV, UT
Deserta raptoria Ball, 1937 - USA: CA

Economic Importance:

Limited.

Known host plants: 

Deserta obesa - Artemisia (sagebrush, Asteraceae)

Deserta obscura - Artemisia tridentata Nutt. (big sagebrush)

Deserta raptoria - Chrysanthemum (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); callosity present behind eye; head more than 2x length of eyes; head as seen from side, beak-like, the apex obliquely rounding from above, the lower angle slightly produced

Keys to genus of US Orgeriinae in Doering & Darby 1943 and Doering (1955).

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

Deserta 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 or on Barcode of life.

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. 1937. Some new Fulgoridae from Western United States. Bulletin of the Brooklyn Entomological Society 32: 171-183.

Ball, E. D. and A. Hartzell. 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].

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.