Family Derbidae

Subfamily Derbinae

Tribe Cenchreini Muir, 1917

Genus Omolicna Fennah, 1945

Type species: Omolicna proxima Fennah, 1945.

Synonyms:

= Phaciocephalus Kirkaldy, 1906, in part (Type species Phaciocephalus vitiensis Kirkaldy 1906); Caldwell 1951: 201 (in Caldwell & Martorell 1951), also Fennah 1952: 126.

Distribution: Nearctic (especially south) and Neotropics.

Recognized species

There are 4 species in  the genus in the US plus 17 Neotropical species.

Nearctic species

1 Omolicna fulva (Van Duzee, 1909) - USA: FL; Cuba; Panama
      = Cenchrea fulva Van Duzee, 1909: 195.
      = Phaciocephalus fulvus (Van Duzee, 1909); comb. by Myers 1926: 91, 103; also Fennah 1952: 136.
      = Syntames fulvus (Van Duzee, 1909); comb. by Metcalf 1938: 328.
      = Omolicna fulvus (Van Duzee, 1909); comb. by implication Fennah 1952: 136; also Wilson & McPherson 1980b: 13.
      = Omolicna fulva (Van Duzee, 1909); emendation by O’Brien 1982b: 320.
2 Omolicna mcateei (Dozier, 1928) - USA: FL, GA, MS, NC, TN
      = Cenchrea mcateei Dozier, 1928: 128.
      = Syntames mcateei (Dozier, 1928); comb. by Metcalf 1938: 328, 329
      = Phaciocephalus mcateei (Dozier, 1928); comb. by Caldwell 1944b: 102.
      = Phaciocephalus nicatiei (Dozier, 1928); missp. by Wray 1967: 30.
      = Omolicna mcateei (Dozier, 1928); comb.by implication Caldwell & Martorell 1951: 201; also O’Brien 1982b: 320.
3 Omolicna texana (Caldwell, 1944b) - USA: TX
      = Phaciocephalus texanus Caldwell, 1944b: 103.
      = Omolicna texana (Caldwell, 1944b); comb. by implication Caldwell & Martorell 1951: 201; emendation by O’Brien 1982b: 320.
4 Omolicna uhleri (Ball, 1902b) - USA: DC, GA, IL, KS, MD, MO, MS, NC, NJ, NY, OH, TN, VA; CAN: ON
      = Cenchrea uhleri Ball, 1902b: 261.
      = Phaciocephalus uhleri (Ball, 1902b); comb. by Muir 1918a: 418.
      = Lamenia uhleri (Ball, 1902b); comb. by Smith 1910.
      = Syntames uhleri (Ball, 1902b); comb. by Fennah 1952: 136.
      = Omolicna uhleri (Ball, 1902b); comb. by implication Caldwell & Martorell 1951: 201; also O’Brien 1982b: 320.

Neotropical species

1 Omolicna anastomosus (Caldwell 1944:104) - Guatemala                

2 Omolicna brunnea (McAtee 1924:178) - Mexico, Panama, Guatemala

3 Omolicna cocoana Rodríguez-León & González 2005: 138 - Cuba

4 Omolicna cubana (Myers, 1926) - Jam, Cuba, P.R.

5 Omolicna dominicana Fennah 1952:135

6 Omolicna dubia (Caldwell 1944:105) - Mexico       

   Omolicna fulva (Van Duzee 1909:195) – see above       

7 Omolicna fusca Metcalf 1938:329 - Panama  

8 Omolicna latens (Fennah, 1952) - Trinidad

  Omolicna mcateei (Dozier 1928:128) -– see above

9 Omolicna nero Fennah 1971:327 - Cayman Is.

10 Omolicna nigripennis (Caldwell 1944:103) - Mexico            

  Omolicna nigripennis var. flavipennis (Caldwell 1944:104) - Mexico (Chiapas, Oaxaca, San Luis Potosí, Sinaloa, Veracruz); Guatamala

11 Omolicna proxima Fennah 1945:441 - Trinidad, Venzuela

12 Omolicna puertana Caldwell, 1951: 201 (in Caldwell & Martorell 1951) - Puerto Rico

13 Omolicna puncta (Caldwell 1944:104) - Mexico

14 Omolicna quadrispinosa (Caldwell 1944:103) - Mexico      

15 Omolicna rubrimarginata Fennah, 1945 - Trinidad

16 Omolicna tarco Fennah 1971:325 - Cayman Is.

    Omolicna texana (Caldwell 1944:103) – USA: TX

17 Omolicna triata (Caldwell 1944:104) - Belize

    Omolicna uhleri (Ball, 1902) – see above  

Economic Importance:

Limited.

Known host plants: 

Omolicna mcateei - Physalis L. (groundcherry, Solanaceae)

Omolicna puertana - Papaya carica Gaertn. (papaya, Caricaceae), Solanum melongena L. (eggplant, solanaceae), Melia azedarach L. (Chinaberrytree, Meliaceae)

Omolicna sp. - Pritchardia thurstonii F. Muell. & Drude, Cocos nucifera L. (coconut palm), Roystonea hispaniolana L.H. Bailey, Sabal umbraculifera Mart. (Arecaceae), Veitchia merrillii (Becc.) H.E. Moore (all Arecaceae)

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

Recognition:

Pale (usually orangish, robust; frons compressed but not extremely; pustules along claval vein; Media with more than two branches, connected to cubitus by crossvein; size less than 6 mm; projections of pronotum partially subtending antennae

The recognition of species of Omolicna from the U.S. is problematic because the genitalia of O. fusca, O. mcateei & O. uhleri are not adequately described, and the types of O. mcateei appear to be lost.

Omolicna spp. (all photographs and drawings by Kimberley Shropshire, University of Delaware)

Omolicna fulva (type specimen)

Omolicna texana paratype

This genus on bugguide. (don't believe the species identification - all are Omolicna sp. until the genus is revised)

Collecting

Common - come so lights and often collected sweeping.

Molecular resources: As of this writing, there are no molecular data for this genus on Genbank; Barcode of life indicates data from Omolicna fulva and O. uhleri.

Selected references:

Ball, E. D. 1902b. New genera and species of North American Fulgoridae. Canadian Entomologist 34: 259-266.

Caldwell, J. S. 1944. The tribe Cenchreini with special references to the Cenchrea complex (Homoptera: Derbidae). Bulletin of the Brooklyn Entomological Society 39: 99-110.

Caldwell, J. S. and L. F. Martorell. 1951 [dated1950]. Review of the Auchenorynchous [sic] Homoptera of Puerto Rico. Part II. The Fulgoroidea except Kinnaridae. Journal of Agriculture of the University of Puerto Rico 34(2): 133-269.

Dozier, H. L. 1928a [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.

Fennah, R. G. 1945. The Fulgoroidea, or lanternflies, of Trinidad and adjacent parts of South America. Proceedings of the United States National Museum 95(3184): 411-520.

Fennah, R. G. 1952. On the generic classification of Derbidae (Fulgoroidea), with descriptions of new Neotropical species. Transactions of the Royal Entomological Society of London 103(4): 109-170.

Fennah, R. G. 1971. Fulgoroidea from the Cayman Islands and adjacent Areas. Journal of Natural History 5: 299-342.

McAtee, W. L. 1924. Notes on Cenchrea Westwood and Cedusa Fowler in America (Homoptera: Fulgoroidea). Annals of the Entomological Society of America17: 175-187.

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

Metcalf, Z. P. 1945. Fulgoroidea (Homoptera) of Kartabo, Bartica district, British Guiana. Zoologica. Scientific Contributions of the New York Zoological Society 30: 125-144.

Rodríguez-León Merino, R. and M. M. Hidalgo-Gato González. 2005. González Descripción de una cueva especie de Omolicna Fennah, 1945 (Hemiptera: Derbidae) de Cuba. Boletín de la SEA (Sociedad Entomológica Aragonesa) 37: 137-139.

Van Duzee E. P. 1909. Observation of some Hemiptera taken in Florida in the spring of 1908. Bulletin of the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences 9: 149-230.

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.