Family Caliscelidae

Subfamily Caliscelinae

Tribe Caliscelini Amyot et Serville, 1843

Genus Fitchiella Van Duzee, 1917

Type species:  Naso robertsoni Fitch, 1856

Synonyms:

   = Naso Fitch, 1856 (nec. Lacépède, 1801) (Type species Naso robertsoni Fitch, 1856)

Distribution: Mostly southwestern and central U.S. (uncommon elsewhere).

Recognized species

There are 8 recognized species:

Fitchiella albifrons Lawson, 1933 - USA: AZ, TX
Fitchiella fitchii (Melichar, 1906) - USA: CO, KS
Fitchiella grandis Lawson, 1933 - USA: AZ
Fitchiella mediana Lawson, 1933 - USA: AZ, CA
Fitchiella melichari (Ball, 1910) - USA: AZ
Fitchiella minor Lawson, 1933 - USA: AZ
Fitchiella robertsoni (Fitch, 1856) - USA: AR, FL, IL?, IN, KS, MD, MO, MS, NE, NY, OH, OK, PA, TX; CAN: ON
Fitchiella rufipes Lawson, 1933 - USA: AZ, CA, NM, NV, TX, UT; Mexico (Chihuahua)

Economic Importance: Limited.

Known host plants: 

Fitchiella rufipes - Eragrostis curvula (Schrad.) Nees; (Weeping lovegrass; Poaceae (from Wilson & Wheeler 2010)

Hosts from Wilson & Wheeler 2010; plant names from USDA PLANTS.

Recognition:

Genus is distinctive, head with weevil-like snout; front and middle legs modified.  Species features more difficult - Doering (1941) provides key, but she did not have all species available to her; some taxa require comparison with known specimens or review of original descriptions.

Fitchiella robertsoni (All photographs by Kimberley Shropshire, University of Delaware)

Fitchiella rufipes

Collecting

Most often taken sweeping.

Molecular resources: As of this writing, no data for this genus appears on Barcode of Life; Genbank has 4 genes for Fitchiella rufipes.

Selected references:

Doering, K. C. 1941. A contribution to the taxonomy of the subfamily Issinae in America north of Mexico (Fulgoridae, Homoptera). Part IV. University of Kansas Science Bulletin 27: 185-233.

Lawson, P. B. 1933. The genus Fitchiella (Homoptera, Fulgoridae). Bulletin of the Brooklyn Entomological Society 28: 194-198.

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

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

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.