Family Dictyopharidae

Subfamily Orgeriinae Fieber, 1872

Tribe Orgeriini Fieber, 1872

Genus Ticrania Emeljanov 2006

Type species (in original combination): Ticida cingulata Uhler, 1891.

Synonyms:

     = Loxophora Van Duzee, 1908 (Type species Loxophora transversa Van Duzee, 1908); syn. by Emeljanov 2006: 73.

Subgenera were established by Emeljanov, 2006 (see below).

Distribution: Southeastern US and adjacent Mexico..

Recognized species

There are 6 species currently in the genus as follows:

Subgenus Heicophora Emeljanov, 2006a (type species Loxophora dammersi Van Duzee, 1934).
Ticida dammersi (Van Duzee, 1934) - USA: CA, NV, Mexico (Baja California)
    = Loxophora dammersi Van Duzee, 1934:191.
    = Ticida (Heicophora) dammersi (Van Duzee, 1934); comb. by Emeljanov 2006: 74.

Subgenus Ticida Uhler, 1891 (Type species Ticida cingulata Uhler, 1891).
Ticida cingulata Uhler, 1891 - USA: CA, CO, NV, UT
Ticida transversa (Van Duzee, 1908) - USA: AZ, CA, NV, UT; Mexico (Baja California)
    = Loxophora transversa Van Duzee, 1908: 473.
    = Ticida (Ticida) transversa (Van Duzee 1908); comb. by Emeljanov 2006: 73.

Subgenus Timodema Ball, 1909 (Type species Timodema miracula Ball, 1909); generic status revised by Emeljanov 2006a: 74 (reduced to subgenus of Ticida).
Ticida miracula Ball, 1909 - USA: AZ, CA; Mexico (Baja California)
    = Timodema miracula Ball, 1909: 201.
    = Ticida (Timodema) miracula Ball, 1909; revised status by Emeljanov 2006: 74.
Ticida rakitovi Emeljanov, 2006 - USA: CA; Mexico (Baja California)
Ticida subapplanta Emeljanov, 2006 - USA: AZ, NV

Economic Importance:

Limited.

Known host plants: 

Ticida cingulata - Yucca.

Ticida sp. - Yucca brevifolia Engelm. (Agavaceae, Joshua tree)

Hosts from personal obs., although I am sure these are published somewhere; Plant names from USDA PLANTS or Tropicos.

Recognition:

Brachypterous, leaving several terga visible from above, tegulae hidden (all Orgeriinae); no callosity behind eye; head rounded or angulate, produced in front of eyes for distance less than 2/3 width of eyes. Vertex broad and short; apical cell of vertex (areolet) absent; Front with horizontal black band above frontoclypeal suture; pronotum without lateral carinae, posterior margin shallowly concave; forewing with median and claval veins as evident carinae (Most similar to Ticrania, which does not have a black band above the frontoclypeal suture).

Keys to genus of US Orgeriinae in Doering & Darby 1943 and Doering (1955).  Status of Ticida, including establishment of subgenera and subsuming Loxophora was considered by Emeljanov, 2006.

 Ticida cingulata (All photos by Rick Donovall or Kimberley Shropshire, Department of Entomology, University of Delaware)

Ticida is found here on Bugguide.

Collecting

Found by inspecting hosts.

Molecular resources: As of this writing, data for Ticida subapplanta is available on Genbank, although there is no data for this genus or on Barcode of life.

Selected references:

Ball, E. D. 1909. Some remarkable new leaf-hoppers of the family Fulgoridae. Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 22: 197-204.

Ball, E. D. 1937. Some new Fulgoridae from Western United States. Bulletin of the Brooklyn Entomological Society 32: 171-183.

Ball, E. D. and A. Hartzell. 1922. A review of the desert leafhoppers of the Orgerini (Rhynchota Fulgoridae). Annals of the Entomological Society of America 15: 137-152.

Doering, K. C. 1955. Some taxonomic and morphological studies of two genera of North American Dictyopharidae. University of Kansas Science Bulletin 37(7): 195-221.

Doering, K. C. and H. H. Darby. 1943. A contribution to the taxonomy of the genus Orgerius in America, north of Mexico (Fulgoridae, Homoptera). Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society 16(2-3): 64-98.

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

Emeljanov, A. F. 2006. Taxonomic changes in American Ogeriinae (Homoptera; Dictyopharidae). Zoosystematica Rossica 15:73-76.

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

Uhler, P. R. 1891. Remarkable new Homoptera. Transactions of the Maryland Academy of Sciences 1: 143-147.

Van Duzee, E. P. 1908d. Studies in North American Fulgoridae. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 1907: 467-498

Van Duzee, E. P. 1934a. An interesting new Fulgoroid (Hemiptera). Pan-Pacific Entomologist 10: 191-192.

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.