Faltalini Zahniser & Dietrich, 2010

Zahniser, James N. & Dietrich, Chris H., 2013, A review of the tribes of Deltocephalinae (Hemiptera: Auchenorrhyncha: Cicadellidae), European Journal of Taxonomy 45, pp. 1-211 : 82-85

Faltalini Zahniser & Dietrich, 2010

Fig. 24

Type genus: Faltala Oman, 1938 .

Diagnosis

Faltalini are small to large sized, somewhat to strongly dorsoventrally flattened, ivory, ochraceous,fuscous, yellowish, or brown leafhoppers; sometimes sexually dimorphic; dorsum sometimes with 5-6 more or less developed longitudinal ochraceous stripes bordered with fuscous or dark coloring; stripes may be present on head, pronotum, wings, and/or abdomen. They resemble Hecalini in the following characters: head often produced or parabolic in shape; first valvula dorsal sculpturing pattern submarginal; first valvula relatively straight; first valvula with distinctly delimited apicoventral sculptured area; second valvula without dorsal teeth. Faltalini can be distinguished from Hecalini and other Deltocephalinae by the following combination of characters: dorsoventrally flattened shape, head often produced, anterior margin of head often foliaceous or with carinae or striae, ocelli often distant from eyes (close to eyes in Hecalini ), sometimes with distinctive color pattern, first valvula dorsal sculpturing pattern maculose to granulose, first valvula with distinctly delimited apicoventral sculpturing (usually not as long as in Hecalini and Dorycephalini), first valvula not humpbacked dorsally (humpbacked in Hecalini and Dorycephalini), second valvula straight to somewhat convex ventrally (concave in Hecalini and Dorycephalini), second valvula without dorsal teeth.

Description

HEAD. Head subequal to or wider than pronotum. Discal portion of crown glabrous with radial or longitudinal striae or shagreen. Anterior margin of head shagreen, glabrous, striate, or foliaceous. Frontoclypeus not tumid; texture shagreen or glabrous. Clypellus parallel-sided or tapering apically; apex following or slightly surpassing normal curve of gena. Lorum subequal to or wider than clypellus near base. Antennal bases near middle or posteroventral (lower) corners of eyes or near anterodorsal (upper) corners of eyes (some Tenucephalus , Bonamus ). Antennae short, less than 1.5 x width of head or long ( Tenucephalus , Bonamus ). Gena obtusely incised laterally; with fine erect seta beside laterofrontal suture. Antennal ledge absent. Ocelli absent or reduced or present; close to ( Tenucephalus ) or distant from eyes; on anterior margin of head.

THORAX. Pronotum lateral margin carinate; lateral margin shorter ( Tenucephalus , Bonamus ) or longer than basal width of eye.

WINGS. Forewings of both sexes brachypterous, quadrate, coriaceous, venation indistinct to reticulate; or males submacropterous or macropterous ( Acrolithus , Hecullus ) and females brachypterous to submacropterous; or males and females macropterous ( Tenucephalus , Bonamus ); if macropterous, appendix restricted to anal margin; with 3 anteapical cells or with 2 anteapical cells; veins not raised; without reflexed costal veins; A1-A2 crossvein absent.

LEGS. Protrochanter often with stout ventroapical seta. Profemur with AM1 seta only; intercalary row with one row of five or more fine setae; row AV with short, stout setae or with relatively long macrosetae. Protibia dorsal surface rounded, convex. Metafemur apex macrosetae 2+2 or 2+2+1. Metatarsomere I not expanded apically, plantar setae simple, tapered.

MALE GENITALIA. Valve articulated with pygofer; lateral margin short, articulating with pygofer at a point. Pygofer basolateral membranous cleft present; macrosetae absent or reduced (≤ two rows) or macrosetae well differentiated into several rows. Subgenital plates free from each other; articulated with valve; macrosetae irregularly arranged, uniseriate laterally, or reduced or absent. Style broadly bilobed basally, median anterior lobe pronounced. Basal processes of the aedeagus/connective absent or reduced or present ( Tenucephalus ). Aedeagus with single shaft and gonopore. Connective anterior arms somewhat divergent, Y -shaped, or closely appressed anteriorly, linear shaped; articulated with or rarely fused (some Tenucephalus ) to aedeagus.

FEMALE GENITALIA. Pygofer with macrosetae reduced or absent. Ovipositor protruding ( Tenucephalus , Bonamus ) or not protruding far beyond pygofer apex. First valvula not strongly convex; dorsal sculpturing pattern granulose or maculose; sculpturing submarginal; with ventroapical sculpturing

distinctly delimited. Second valvula broad, gradually tapered or gradually broadened medially or subapically; without dorsal median tooth; teeth absent.

Geography and ecology

Distribution: Nearctic and Neotropical regions. Known hosts are grasses. Tenucephalus spp. have been collected at lights. Many species appear to be predominantly or completely brachypterous, some are sexually dimorphic for wing length ( Acrolithus , Hecullus ), and some are macropterous ( Bonamus , Hecalocorica , Tenucephalus ).

Remarks

Faltalini contains 10 genera and 26 species and is distributed in the New World from the southwestern United States to Argentina and Chile. Tenucephalus and Bonamus form a morphologically distinct group within the tribe, distinguished by the following characters: body long and slender; both sexes macropterous; ovipositor extending well beyond pygofer apex. Although including these genera makes the tribe as a whole more difficult to characterize morphologically, some characters, especially of the female genitalia, support a relationship to other Faltalini and 28S rDNA data very strongly support the monophyly of the tribe ( Zahniser & Dietrich 2010).

Egenus Oman, 1938 is removed from the tribe here. It was tentatively included by Zahniser & Dietrich (2010) but subsequent observations of the female revealed that the genus does not possess the characters of the ovipositor that help to distinguish the tribe. It is transferred to Athysanini . A preliminary phylogenetic study of Hecalini (Catanach, unpublished) suggests that Egenus is related to Arrugada Oman, 1938 .

Selected references

DeLong & Thambimuttu (1973), Linnavuori & DeLong (1977a), Blocker & Fang (1992), Zahniser & Webb (2004), Marino de Remes Lenicov & Paradell (2009), Zahniser & Dietrich (2010).

Included genera

Acrolithus Freytag & Ma, 1988

Aequecephalus DeLong & Thambimuttu, 1973

Bonamus Oman, 1938

Clorindaia Linnavuori, 1975

Faltala Oman, 1938

Hecalocorica Nielson, 1996

Hecullus Oman, 1949

Kramerana DeLong & Thambimuttu, 1973

Tenucephalus DeLong, 1944

Virganana DeLong & Thambimuttu, 1973

Figures

Fig. 24. Faltalini. Clorindaia cyphora Blocker & Fang, 1992. A–I. Standard views (see Material & Methods).