[Return to North American Achilidae]
Contents
Family Achilidae Stål, 1866
Subfamily Achilinae Stål, 1866
Tribe Plectoderini Fennah, 1950
Genus Momar Fennah, 1950
Type species: Plectoderes lineatocollis Fowler, 1904.
Synonyms:
None
Distribution:
Distribution of Momar from FLOW (as of 22 Sept 2018)
Southwestern US and Mesoamerica.
Recognized species:
There are 3 species currently in the genus
Momar fumidus (Ball, 1933) – USA: AZ, CA; Mexico (Sonora, Chihuahua)
Momar lineatocollis (Fowler, 1904: 111) – Mexico (Guerrero), Panama (Volcan de Chiriqui [Volcán Barú])
Momar maculifrons (Van Duzee, 1912) – USA: AZ, NM, TX, UT; Mexico (Chihuahua)
Economic Importance:
Limited.
Plant associations:
Nymphs of achilids associated with fungus (usually in logs). The significance of adult host association is unclear.
Momar fumidus – Platanus wrightii S. Watson (Arizona sycamore, Platanaceae),
Momar maculifrons – Platanus wrightii S. Watson, Quercus sp. (Oak, Fagaceae), Vitis sp. (grape, Vitaceae)
Hosts from O’Brien 1971, Wilson et al. 1994; plant names from USDA PLANTS.
Recognition:
Frons pattern distinctive among genera north of Mexico: frons with three pairs of dark spots, sometimes fused, on basal half; southwestern (esp. vs. Synecdoche); Subcostal cell of forewing longer than 1/3 length of wing, narrow throughout (vs. Catonia) Rostrum longer than clypeus, reaching base of hind coxae (vs. Xerbus)
Description of genus from Fennah 1950: 58.
Head with eyes almost as wide as pronotum. Vertex across base at middle broader than long in middle line (17:1), medially carinate completely, anterior margin subangulately rounded, markedly convex, slightly produced before eyes, lateral margins straight, divergent basad, posterior margin angularly excavate, frons convex in profile, moderately broad, lateral margins somewhat diverging distally, median carina present throughout, lateral carinae produced laterally, clypeus medially and laterally carinate, apical joint of rostrum exceeding subapical joint, apex attaining meso-coxae only, antennae subglobose, not sunk deeply in a depression, ocelli not contiguous with eyes, eyes not entirely covering pronotum but much overlapping. Pronotum short, in middle line half length of vertex in same line, tricarinate, lateral carinae of disk straight, diverging to hind margin, each twice as long as median carina, lateral fields inclined anteroventrad ; mesonotum about twice as long as vertex and pronotum combined, tricarinate, post-tibiae with a single spine basad of middle. Tegmina with Sc+R and GUI forked at about same level, just basad of apex of clavus, clavus terminating at middle of tegmen. Anal segment of male very short, medioventral process of pygofer semilunate, not bifid. First valvulae of ovipositor with four teeth, bursa copulatrix with faint annular ornamentation, three or four enlarged rings near entrance, these rings each with five tubercles on one side. Type species, Plectoderes lineatocollis Fowler.
Key to US Momar from O’Brien (1971)
1. Hind wings white with dark veins; medioventral lobe of male pygofer about 3x as broad as long – M. maculifrons (Van Duzee)
1.’ Hind wings brown with brown veins; medioventral lobe of male pygofer about 1.3x as broad as long – M. fumidus (Ball)
Momar lineatocollis from Fennah 1950
Websites: Most websites are not particularly informative.
3i.
EOL.
Bugguide.
Discover Life.
FLOW.
Hoppers of North Carolina. (not present, genus is western)
Kunzweb Gallery. (Genus not present, link to family).
American Insects. (Genus not present, link to family) (this website appears to be offline).
BOLD. (Genus not present, link to subfamily).
Collecting:
Most often taken at lights, relatively common.
Molecular resources:
No data for this genus appears on GenBank or Barcode of Life. (As of May 2017).
Selected references:
Bartlett, C. R., L. B. O’Brien and S. W. Wilson. 2014. A review of the planthoppers (Hemiptera: Fulgoroidea) of the United States. Memoirs of the American Entomological Society 50: 1-287.
Fennah, R. G. 1950. A generic revision of the Achilidae (Homoptera: Fulgoroidea) with descriptions of new species. Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) Entomology 1: 1-170. [see p. 58]
Fowler, W. W. 1904. Order Rhynchota. Suborder Hemiptera-Homoptera. (Continued). Biologia Centrali-Americana 1: 85-124.
Metcalf, Z. P. 1948. General catalogue of the Hemiptera. Fasc. IV. Fulgoroidea, Part 10. Achilidae. Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts. 85 pp.
O’Brien, L. B. 1971. The systematics of the tribe Plectoderini in America north of Mexico (Homoptera: Fulgoroidea: Achilidae). University Of California Publications in Entomology 64: 1-79.
Stål, C. 1866a. Hemiptera Homoptera Latr. Hemiptera Africana vol. 1-2. Officina Norstedtiana, Stockholm, Sweden. 256 + 181 pp. [From Smithsonian Biodiversity Heritage Library http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/] (partial translation)
Van Duzee, E. P. 1912a. Hemipterological gleanings. Bulletin of the Buffalo Society of Natural Science 10: 477-512.
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.
