Family Dictyopharidae

Subfamily Dictyopharinae Onuki, 1901

Tribe Nersiini Emeljanov, 1983 (sensu Emeljanov 2011)

Genus Nersia Stål, 1862

Type species (in original combination): Nersia haedina Stål, 1862.

Synonyms: None.

Distribution: Mostly a Neotropical genus, also found in southern (especially southeastern) US.. 

Recognized species

There are 13 recognized species. 

New World

Nersia aridella Melichar, 1912 - Brazil
Nersia chlorophana Melichar, 1912 - Brazil
Nersia distinguenda (Spinola, 1839) - Chile, Venezuela, Brazil, French Guiana
Nersia florens Stål, 1862 - USA: AR, FL, GA, IL, KS, LA, MO, MS, NC, OK, SC, TN, TX; Belize, Brazil, Bolivia, Columbia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Guyana, Jamaica, Mexico (Chiapas, Durango, Hidalgo, Guerrero, Morales, San Luis Potosí, Tabasco, Veracruz, Yucatán), Panama, Peru, Suriname, Venezuela
Nersia florida Fennah, 1944 - USA: FL, MS, TX; Mexico (Veracruz)
Nersia haedina Stål, 1862 - Brazil, Costa Rica, Paraguay
Nersia nigrosignata Stål, 1862 - Brazil (this species treated as jr syn of suturalis (Stal 1854) in Metcalf; Stål 1862: 63 seems to treat this name as a replacement name for Pseudophana suturalis Stål, 1854: 245.; Treated as jr. syn. of suturalis by Baptista 2006)
Nersia ornata Melichar, 1912 - Guiana
Nersia pudica Stål, 1862 - Brazil
Nersia recurvirostris Stål, 1862 - Brazil

Nersia sertata (Jacobi, 1904) - Brazil, Uraguay

Nersia suturalis (Stål, 1854) - Brazil

Nersia viridis (Olivier, 1791) - Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Columbia, Ecuador, Honduras, Mexico, Peru, Surinam, Venezuela.

Old World

Nersia fugax (Melichar, 1912) - Cameroon (This species probably belongs to Afronersia Fennah, 1958, but either I have missed the transfer or this species has been missed in recent revisionary work).

Economic Importance:

Limited.

Known host plants: 

Nersia florens - Rumex crispus L. (curly dock, Polygonaceae); Ageratina altissima (L.) King & H. Rob. (white snakeroot, as Eupatorium rugosum Houtt., Asteraceae); Phaseolus sp. (Fabaceae)

Information on food plants, life history, biology and rearing of Nersia florens are provided by Wilson & McPherson 1981.

Hosts from Donovall (2008), Maes & O'Brien 1988, Wilson et al. 1994; plant names from USDA PLANTS or Tropicos.

Recognition:

North of Mexico, one of only 3 macropterous, 'green' (in life) genera. Tegula carinate, head wedge-shaped in lateral view wedge-shaped, not upcurved (both unlike Mitrops); pronotum shallowly notched (deeply in Rhychomitra).

Nersia sertata and Nersia haedina are redescribed by Pulz & Carvalho, 2006

Nersia florens (Photos by Rick Donovall or Kimberley Shropshire, University of Delaware)

Nersia is on Bugguide here.

Collecting

Occasionally to lights or sweeping.

Molecular resources: As of this writing, there appears to be no molecular data for this genus on Genbank.  Nersia florida is in Barcode of life.

Selected references:

Baptista, M.d.S. 2006. Taxonomia de Fulgoroidea no Brasil (Insecta: Hemiptera: Auchenorrhynca), com Enfase em Dictyopharidae. Universidade Federal se Vicosa. Doctoral Thesis

Baptista, M. S., Ferreira P. S. F. & Da-Silva E. R. 2006. Mitrops Fennah, 1944 (Hemiptera: Fulgoromorpha: Dictyopharidae) from Brazil: a new species of and addtional records. In: Taxonomia de Fulgoroidea no Brasil (Insecta: Hemiptera: Auchenorrhyncha), com ênfase em Dictyopharidae. Tese, Universidade de Viçosa, Minas Gerais, Brasil Artigo 1: 19-35.

Donovall, L. R., III. 2008. A generic revision of the new world Dictyopharinae (Hemiptera: Dictyopharidae). Masters Thesis. University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware.

Emeljanov, A. F. 1983. Cretaceous planthopper from Taimyr (Homoptera, Dictyopharidae). OR Dictyopharidae from the Cretaceous deposits on the Taymyr Peninsula (Insecta, Homoptera). Paleontologicheskii Zhurnal 3: 79-85. [Russian Translated in: Paleontological Journal 17(3): 77-82]

Emeljanov, A. F. 2008. New genera and new species of the family Dictyopharidae (Homoptera), with notes on the systematics of the subfamily Dictyopharinae. Entomological Review 88: 296-328. [English translation]

Emeljanov, A. F. 2011. Improved tribal delimitation of the subfamily Dictyopharinae and description of new genera and new species (Homoptera, Fulgoroidea, Dictyopharidae). Ėntomologicheskoe Obozrenie 90(2): 299-328 [In Russian, English Translation, Entomological Review 91(9): 1122-1145].

Fennah, R. G. 1944. New Dictyopharidae from the New World (Homoptera : Fulgoroidea). Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 57: 77-94.

Maes, J. M. and L. B. O'Brien. 1988. Catalogo de los Fulgoroidea (Homoptera) de Nicaragua. Revista Nicaraguense de Entomologia 2: 27-42.

Metcalf, Z. P. 1923. A key to the Fulgoridae of eastern North America with descriptions of new species. Journal of the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society 38(3): 139-230, plus 32 plates. [available from http://www.lib.unc.edu/dc/jncas/]

Metcalf, Z. P. 1946. General Catalogue of the Homoptera. Fascicle IV Fulgoroidea. Part 8 Dictyopharidae. Smith College, Northhampton, Massachusetts.

Pulz, C. E. and G. S. Carvalho. 2006. As espécies de Nersia (Hemiptera, Fulgoromorpha, Dictyopharidae) do Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil. [The species of Nersia (Hemiptera, Fulgoromorpha, Dictyopharidae) from Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil]. Iheringia. Série Zoologia 96(1): 75-80.

Wilson, S. W. and J. E. McPherson. 1981. Notes on the biology of Nersia florens (Homoptera: Fulgoroidea: Dictyopharidae) with descriptions of eggs, and first, second and fifth instars. Great Lakes Entomologist 14(1): 45-48.

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