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Contents
Family Delphacidae Leach, 1815
Subfamily Delphacinae Leach, 1815
Tribe Saccharosydnini Vilbaste, 1968
Genus Neomalaxa Muir, 1918: 246.
Type species (in original combination): Neomalaxa flava Muir, 1918: 247.
Distribution
South and Central America, Caribbean.
Recognized species
There is a single described species currently placed in this genus.
Neomalaxa flava Muir, 1918 – Brazil, Caribbean (Dominica, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, St. Lucia, Trinidad) Ecuador, Guyana, Panama, Venezuela.
Plant associations
Neomalaxa flava – Urochloa adspersa (Trin.) R. Webster (Dominican signalgrass) (as Brachiaria adspersa (Trin.) Parodi).
Rossi Batiz, 2014 notes: Commelina elegans (Magnoliophyta, Liliopsida) (Muir, 1918); Common in humid sites above 300msnm on grasses and grasses under coffee plants and in the jungle between shrubs, and especially on Guarea spp., Dendropanax spp., Inga vera, Urochloa adspersa and Brachiaria adspersa (Caldwell and Martorell, 1951 ).
Economic Importance
Probably limited – not reported as a pest.
Recognition
Very fragile, head quite barrow with respect to prothorax, with strongly narrowed frons (somewhat projected beyond eye) and long antennae (with dark lines on anterior margin of scape); green-ish in life. I’ve seen this species in long series, but seldom in good shape. It is possible that there are unrecorded species in this genus.
From Rossi Batiz 2014
Neomalaxa flava From Caldwell and Martorell 1951
Molecular resources
There are no data on this genus in Genbank or BOLD (Bold has a specimen but barcoding was not successful)
Selected references
Caldwell, J. S. and L. F. Martorell. 1951 [dated1950]. Review of the Auchenorynchous [sic] Homoptera of Puerto Rico. Part II. The Fulgoroidea except Kinnaridae. Journal of Agriculture of the University of Puerto Rico 34(2): 133-269.
Fennah, R. G. 1959. Delphacidae from the Lesser Antilles (Homoptera: Fulgoroidea). Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) Entomology 8: 245-265.
Leach, W. E. 1815a. Entomology. The Edinburg encyclopedia; conducted by David Brewster 9: 57-172. (family Delphacidae p. 125).
Metcalf, Z. P. 1943. General Catalogue of the Hemiptera. Fascicle IV, Fulgoroidea, Part 3, Araeopidae (Delphacidae). Smith College, Northhampton, Massachusetts. 552 pp.
Muir, F.A.G. 1918a. Homopterous Notes II. Proceedings of the Hawaiian Entomological Society. 3: 414-429.
Muir, F.A.G. 1926b. Contributions to our knowledge of South American Fulgoroidea (Homoptera). Part I. The Family Delphacidae. Experiment Station of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters’ Association, Entomological Series, Bulletin 18:1-51, plates 1-5.
Rossi-Batiz, M.F. 2014. Taxonomía, Distribución y Biología de la tribu Saccharosydnini (Insecta-Hemiptera-Fulgoromorpha). Universidad Nacional de La Plata, La Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Doctoral Thesis.
Vilbaste, J. 1968. K faune tsikadovykh Primorskogo kraia. [Über die Zikadenfauna des Primorje Gebietes.] Valgus, Tallin, Estonia.
