Conservation of Grassland Leafhoppers: A Brief Review

The leafhoppers, planthoppers and their allies (collectively known as the Auchenorrhyncha) are presented as a group of insects that are highly appropriate for studying grassland ecology and conservation, evaluating the conservation status of sites and monitoring environmental and habitat change. Semi-natural grasslands typically support dense populations and a wide range of species with diverse ecological strategies. Their numerical dominance in many grasslands means that they have considerable functional significance, both as herbivores and as prey for higher trophic levels. Population and assemblage studies are supported by good ecological knowledge about most species and modern identification keys. Hitherto, most studies have focused on the composition and structure of assemblages and how they are affected by conservation management. However, grasslands support many rare species with small and fragmented populations which deserve conservation attention in their own right, and recent work has started to reflect this. The effects of management on the composition and structure of grassland leafhopper populations and assemblages are described and an assessment is given of the main threats facing individual species and overall diversity. There is a need to synthesise the scattered literature on grassland leafhoppers, to provide a model for how the composition and structure of populations and assemblages respond to major environmental and anthropogenic gradients across large biogeographic areas. Such an analysis could help predict the impact of likely future changes in land use and climate.     

Characterization of the feeding behavior of three Erythroneura species on grapevine by histological and DC‐electrical penetration graph techniques

Feeding behavior of three leafhopper species – Erythroneura vitis (Harris), Erythroneura ziczac (Walsh), and Erythroneura elegantula (Say) (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae) – reared on grapevine, Vitis vinifera L. cv. ‘Seyval blanc’ (Vitaceae), was investigated using histological techniques and DC‐electrical penetration graphs (DC‐EPG). Histological studies revealed that the Erythroneura species induced white stipples on the leaves and that these leafhoppers produced thin salivary sheaths in grapevine leaf tissues. The DC‐EPG system allowed the characterization of five waveforms associated with stylet penetration and feeding in leaf tissues. These waveforms were characteristic of feeding phases corresponding to epidermis penetration pathway, salivation, and ingestion. We calculated 28 parameters (e.g., number of probes, duration of phases, and time spent in the various tissues) to describe and compare the feeding behavior of the Erythroneura species. We conclude that the three Erythroneura species are mainly mesophyll feeders but may probably also feed in other tissues such as xylem.     

Taxonomic revision of family Tropiduchidae (Hemiptera: Fulgoromorpha) from Korea

The family Tropiduchidae is revised taxonomically comprising five genera and five species from Korea. Catullia vittata Matsumura is redescribed here on the basis of a series of males recently collected in Korea. Cixiopsis punctatus Matsumura and Catullia vittata Matsumura were transferred from Achilidae to Tropiduchidae and are redescribed here with male genitalia for the first time from Korea. Ommatissus binatatus Fieber previously reported was an incorrect identification of Ommatissus lofouensis Muir. Another species, Trypetimorpha koreana Kwon and Lee, is the macropterous form of Trypetimorpha japonica Ishihara. All Korean species of the Tropiduchidae are redescribed and illustrated, and an identification key to the genera of Tropiduchidae is provided.     

蜡蝉次目(昆虫纲:半翅目)昆虫化石研究进展

近200年来,全世界共报道半翅目蜡蝉次目化石昆虫28科、216属、400余种.本文回顾了蜡蝉次目化石昆虫的研究历史,统计了中国已报道的该类群化石种类名录,总结了蜡蝉次目化石昆虫的地质历史、地理分布和年代、以及属种组成特征,提出了该类群化石昆虫研究中有待解决的问题以及未来的研究前景.     

Phylogenetic analysis of the leafhopper genus Apogonalia (Insecta: Hemiptera: Cicadellidae) and comments on the biogeography of the Caribbean islands

A phylogenetic analysis of the leafhopper genus Apogonalia was conducted based on a matrix of 40 terminal taxa and 147 morphological characters. The analysis yielded 1391 equally most‐parsimonious trees, which do not support the monophyly of Apogonalia in the strict consensus. A successive weighting procedure yielded 62 trees in which the genus appeared as a monophyletic group. The strict consensus of these 62 trees is almost entirely dichotomous, showing only two polytomies. The test of phylogenetic integrity was applied for distinct variations of three species: A. germana, A. sanguinipes, and A. histrio. Only for the first species was the conjecture that its variations belong to the same entity corroborated. The best‐supported clade within Apogonalia, which has several synapomorphies and high branch support indices, comprises nine Antillean endemic species. This distributional pattern probably was originated by vicariance in the Late Cretaceous, when the Proto‐Antillean archipelago was pushed north‐eastward by the Caribbean Plate to become the modern Greater Antilles. © 2011 The Linnean Society of London, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2011, 163 , 548–570.