Family Derbidae

Subfamily Otiocerninae

Tribe Otiocerini Muir, 1917

Genus Shellenius Ball, 1928

Type species (in original combination): Otiocerus ballii McAtee 1923.

Synonyms: None.

Distribution: Widespread in US and Central America.

Recognized species

There are 5 species recognized in Shellenius as follows:

Shellenius ballii (McAtee, 1923) - USA: FL, IL, LA, MD, MS, OH, TN; CAN: ON
Shellenius gracilior (Fowler, 1904: 66) - Guatemala
Shellenius griseus (Fowler, 1904: 75) - Mexico (Guerrero)
Shellenius montanus (Fowler, 1904: 74) - Mexico (Guerrero), Panama
Shellenius schellenbergii (Kirby, 1821) - USA: AZ, FL, GA, IL, LA, MO, MS, NJ, NY, OH

Economic Importance:

Limited - species are seldom encountered.

Known host plants: 

Derbidae are known or assumed to feed on fungal hyphae as immatures.  The significance of adult host associations are unclear.

Shellenius ballii - Acer (maple, Aceraceae), Carpinus caroliniana Walter (American hornbeam, Betulaceae), Sabal palmetto (Walter) Lodd. ex Schult. & Schult. f. (cabbage palmetto, Arecaceae), Fraxinus (ash, Oleaceae)

Shellenius schellenbergii - Acer, Carpinus caroliniana, Sabal palmetto, Fraxinus

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

Recognition:

Pale, fragile forms; wings greatly exceeding the abdomen; frons extremely compressed, head strongly projecting; pustules along claval vein; clavus open, antennae with appendages; in lateral view, head projecting in front of eyes for a distance greater than width of eyes (vs. Anotia), distally rounded (vs. Otiocerus, Apache).

Shellenius ballii (photographs by Kimberley Shropshire, University of Delaware)

Shellenius schellenbergii

Bugguide (as of this writing) does not have photographs representing this genus.

Collecting

Found infrequently. 

Molecular resources: As of this writing, there are appears to be no molecular data for this genus on Genbank; Barcode of Life has data for Shellenius balli.

Selected references:

Ball, E. D. 1928. Some new genera and species of N. A. Derbidae with notes on others (Fulgoridae). Canadian Entomologist 60: 196-201.

Bartlett, C. R., E. R. Adams, and A. T. Gonzon. 2011. Planthoppers of Delaware (Hemiptera, Fulgoroidea), excluding Delphacidae, with species incidence from adjacent States. ZooKeys 83: 1-42.

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. 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.

Fowler, W. W. 1904. Order Rhynchota. Suborder Hemiptera-Homoptera. (Continued). Biologia Centrali-Americana 1: 57-76, 77-84.

Kirby, W. F. 1821. The characters of Otiocerus and Anotia, two new genera of Hemipterous insects belonging to the family of Cicadiadae : with a description of several species. Transactions of the Linnean Society of London (Second series) Zoology 13: 12-23.

McAtee, W. L. 1923a. A new species of Otiocerus (Homoptera; Fulgoridae). Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington. 36: 45-48.

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/]

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