Family Tropiduchidae

Subfamily Tambiniinae Kirkaldy, 1907

Tribe Gaetuliini Fennah, 1978 (sensu Gnezdilov 2007)

(Note: Historically part of Issidae [e.g., Fennah 1954]; subsequently transferred to Nogodinidae [Fennah 1984], then to Tropiduchidae [Gnezdilov 2007]).

Genus Osbornia Ball, 1910

Type species: Osbornia cornuta Ball, 1910.

Synonyms: None.

Note: The Gaetuliini were were described as a subtribe (Gaetuliina) of Bladinini (Nogodinidae) by Fennah (1978), then recharacterized by Fennah (1987) to include a series of North American forms formerly in the Issidae.  Gnezdilov (2007), used morphological reasoning with reference to molecular data presented by Urban & Cryan (2007), to recognize that the Gaetuliina were not closely related to Bladina (nor Nogodina), and remained misplaced at the family level, which led him to transfer the Gaetuliina into the Tropiduchidae as a tribe. This situation requires further study to clarify relationships among these taxa.

 

Distribution: Southwestern US.

Recognized species

There are 2 recognized species:

Osbornia arborea Ball, 1935a - USA: AZ, CA, NM, TX, UT
Osbornia arborea var. fusca Doering, 1939 - USA: NM
Osbornia cornuta Ball, 1910 - USA: CA, TX, UT

 

Economic Importance:

Limited.

 

Known host plants: 

Osbornia arborea - Juniperus sp. (Juniper, Cupressaceae)

Hosts from Doering 1939, Wilson et al. 1994; plant names from USDA PLANTS.

Recognition:

Usually brachypterous, wings at least partly reticulate

Osbornia cornuta (all photographs by Kimberley Shropshire, University of Delaware)

Osbornia arborea

Collecting

This genus is most often collected sweeping likely hosts.

 

Molecular resources: As of this writing, no data for this genus appears on Barcode of Life or Genbank. (There is data on the plant genus Osbornia (Myrtaceae).

 

Selected references:

Ball, E. D. 1910b. New genera and species of Issidae (Fulgoridae). Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 23: 41-45.

Ball, E. D. 1935a. Some new Issidae with notes on others (Homoptera: Fulgoridae). Bulletin of the Brooklyn Entomological Society 30: 37-41.

Doering. K. C. 1939 [1940a]. A contribution to the taxonomy of the subfamily Issinae in America north of Mexico (Fulgoroidea: Homoptera. Part III. University of Kansas Science Bulletin. 26(2): 83-167.

Fennah, R. G. 1978. The higher classification of the Nogodinidae (Homoptera: Fulgoroidea) with a description of a new genus and species. Entomologist's Monthly Magazine 113(1977): 113-120.

Fennah, R. G. 1987. A new subfamily of Nogodinidae (Homoptera: Fulgoroidea) with the description of a new species of Gastrinia. Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington 89(2): 363-366.

Gnezdilov, V. M. 2007. On the systematic positions of the Bladinini Kirkaldy, Tonginae Kirkaldy, and Trienopinae Fennah (Homoptera, Fulgoroidea). Zoosystematica Rossica 15(2): 293–297.

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

O'Brien, L. B. 1988. Taxonomic changes in North American Issidae (Homoptera: Fulgoroidea). Annals of the Entomological Society of America 81(6): 865-869.

Urban J. M. and J. R. Cryan. 2007. Evolution of the planthoppers (Insecta: Hemiptera: Fulgoroidea). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 42(2): 556-572.

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