[Back to North American Cixiidae]
Family Cixiidae Spinola, 1839
Subfamily Cixiinae Spinola, 1839
Tribe Pentastirini Emeljanov, 1971
Genus Oliaridus Hendrix & Bartlett, 2025
Type species Oliarus aridus Ball, 1902.
Distribution
Widely distributed in the U.S. and southern Canada, reaching as far south as Belize.
Recognized Species
Oliaridus aridus (Ball, 1902): Canada (ON); USA (AL, AR, AZ, CA, CO, GA, ID, IL, IN,KS, LA, MO, MS, MT, NC, ND, NE, NM, OH, OK, OR, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, WY); Mexico (Chihuahua, Durango).
Oliaridus caldwelli (Mead & Kramer, 1982): USA (NM, TX).
Oliaridus californicus (Van Duzee, 1914): USA (CA).
Oliaridus hesperius (Van Duzee, 1917): USA (CA, NV, OR).
Oliaridus kieferi (Mead & Kramer, 1982): USA (AZ, UT).
Oliaridus knullorum (Mead & Kramer, 1982): USA (AZ, TX).
Oliaridus lobatus (Caldwell, 1938): USA (NM, TX).
Oliaridus pima (Kirkaldy, 1907): USA (AZ, CA, NM, UT).
Oliaridus sementinus (Ball, 1902): USA (AZ, CA, CO, NM, UT).
Oliaridus sonoitus (Ball, 1937): USA (AZ, CA, NM, TX); Mexico (Chihuahua, Tamaulipas).
Oliaridus truncatus (Van Duzee, 1929): USA (CA).
Economic Importance
Not reported as pests
Plant associations
Oliaridus pima – Ericameria nauseosa (Pall. ex Pursh) G.L.Nesom & G.I.Baird (as Chrysothamnus speciosus; Asteraceae) (Mead & Kramer 1982).
Recognition
Medium-to-large-sized planthoppers (~4–8 mm); brownish-red to brown in coloration. Vertex often wider at base than length at midline, lateral maculae present. Maculae of frons large and conspicuous; eyes mottled with red spots. Mesonotal carinae concolorous to orange; wings with dark tubercles on veins; wing veins intermixed pale and dark; wings marked with spotting at vein forks. Pygofer with small, bluntly sagittate medioventral process (in ventral view), length reaching less than half length of lateral lobes of pygofer. Periandrium narrow, usually with narrow sinistral process, dextral process (when present) longer than sinistral. Endosoma broad and arcuate, helically looped to surpass aedeagus, possessing long process on outer margin, shorter process on inner margin, and numerous long apical processes. (Hendrix & Bartlett 2025).
Online resources
Collecting.
Common at lights
Molecular resources
Not on BOLD.
Selected references
Ball, E.D. 1902. Some new North American Fulgoridae. Canadian Entomologist 34, 147–157. https://doi.org/10.4039/Ent34147-6
Ball, E.D. 1934. The genus Oliarus and its allies in North America (Homoptera: Fulgoridae). Journal of the Washington Academy of Science 24: 268–276.
Ball, E.D. 1937. Some New Fulgoridae from the Western United States. Bulletin of the Brooklyn Entomological Society, 32
(5), 171–183.
Bartlett, C.R., L.B. O’Brien & S.W. Wilson. 2014. A review of the planthoppers (Hemiptera: Fulgoroidea) of the United States. Memoirs of the American Entomological Society 50: 1–287.
Caldwell, J.S. 1938. New Texan Fulgoridae (Homoptera). Ohio Journal of Science, 38, 304–306.
Caldwell, J.S. 1947. New species of Oliarus Stål from southwestern United States and Mexico (Homoptera: Cixiidae). Pan-Pacific Entomologist 23(4): 145–151.
Hendrix, S.V. & C.R. Bartlett. 2025. Reclassification of the planthopper genus Melanoliarus Fennah, 1945 (Hemiptera: Fulgoromorpha: Cixiidae), primarily north of Mexico, with notes on American Pentastirini. Zootaxa, 5619(1), 1–87. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5619.1.1
Hoch, H. 2005. On the identity of the type species of the planthopper genus Oliarus Stål, 1862, Oliarus walkeri (Stål, 1859) (Hemiptera: Cixiidae). Zootaxa 1056: 53–60.
Holzinger, W.E., A.F. Emeljanov & I. Kammerlander. 2002. The family Cixiidae Spinola 1839 (Hemiptera: Fulgoromorpha) – a review. Pp. 113-138. In: Holzinger, W. (ed.). Zikaden: Leafhoppers, Planthoppers, and Cicadas (Insecta: Hemiptera: Auchenorrhyncha). Denisia, Volume 4. Oberosterreichisches Landesmuseum, Linz, Austria. 556 pp.
Kirkaldy, G.W. 1907. Leafhoppers. Hemiptera Homoptera. Bulletin. Hawaiian Sugar Planters’ Association Experiment Station.
Division of Entomology, 4, 60–66.
Mead, F.W. & J.P. Kramer. 1982. Taxonomic study of the planthopper genus Oliarus in the United States (Homoptera: Fulgoroidea” Cixiidae). Transactions of the American Entomological Society 107: 381–569.
Metcalf, Z.P. 1936. General Catalogue of the Homoptera. Fascicle IV Fulgoroidea . Part 2 Cixiidae. Smith College, Northhampton, Massachusetts. 269 pp.
Van Duzee, E.P. 1914. A preliminary list of the Hemiptera of San Diego Country, California. Transactions of the San Diego Society of Natural History 2: 1–57.
Van Duzee, E.P. 1929. A new Oliarus. Pan-Pacific Entomologist, 6, 72.
