Genus Fitchiella Van Duzee, 1917

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[Back to North American Caliscelidae]

Family Caliscelidae Amyot and Serville, 1843

Subfamily Caliscelinae Amyot and Serville, 1843

Tribe Peltonotellini Emeljanov, 2008

Genus Fitchiella Van Duzee, 1917

Type species: Naso robertsonii Fitch, 1856

Synonyms

•   Naso Fitch, 1856 (nec. Lacépède, 1801) (Type species Naso robertsonii Fitch, 1856), preoccupied name replaced by Fitchiella Van Duzee, 1917 in Van Duzee, 1917: 740.

Distribution

Mostly southwestern and central U.S. (uncommon elsewhere).

Recognized species

There are 11 recognized species [Genus: Metcalf 1958: 42]

melichari-group (groups by Hendrix & Bartlett, 2025)
Fitchiella albifrons Lawson, 1933: 194 – USA: AZ, TX
Fitchiella grandis Lawson, 1933: 197 – USA: AZ
Fitchiella mediana Lawson, 1933: 196 – USA: AZ, CA
Fitchiella melichari (Ball, 1910) – USA: AZ
= Naso melichari  Ball 1910: 42, original description
= Fitchiella melichari  (Ball, 1910), comb. by Van Duzee (1917: 741)
Fitchiella minor Lawson, 1933: 197 – USA: AZ
Fitchiella rufipes Lawson, 1933: 195 – USA: AZ, CA, NM, NV, TX, UT; Mexico (Chihuahua)

robertsonii-group
Fitchiella brachyrhina De Freitas, Dietrich & Takiya, 2020: 43 (here) – Mexico (Zacatecas)
Fitchiella fitchii (Melichar, 1906) – USA: CO, KS
= Naso fitchii Melichar, 1906: 19, original combination
= Fitchiella fitchii (Melichar, 1906), comb. by Van Duzee (1917: 741)
Fitchiella robertsonii (Fitch, 1856) (Fitch’s Elephanthopper, Robertson’s Flightless Planthopper ) – USA: AR, FL, IL?, IN, KS, MD, MO, MS, NE, NY, OH, OK, PA, TX; CAN: ON
= Naso robertsonii Fitch, 1856: 396. original description
= Fitchiella robertsonii (Fitch, 1856), comb. by Van Duzee (1917: 741)
Fitchiella rugosa (Metcalf, 1923) – USA: AZ, TX
= Bruchomorpha rugosa Metcalf, 1923
= Fitchiella rugosa (Metcalf, 1923); comb by Hendrix & Bartlett, 2025: 87.
Fitchiella zahniseri De Freitas, Dietrich & Takiya, 2020: 46  (here)- Panama

Economic Importance

Fitchiella robertsonii has been considered for state or federal listing as a threatened species resulting from habitat loss (see Bess 2005). For this species, Rice & Hatfield (2025)  provide data on distribution, longevity, fecundity, seasonality, motility, parasitism and host plants.

Plant associations

• Fitchiella rufipes – Eragrostis curvula (Schrad.) Nees; (Weeping lovegrass; Poaceae (from Wilson & Wheeler 2010); Xanthocephalum sp. (Asteraceae) from Foster et al. 1981.
• Fitchiella robertsonii – Orbexilum onobrychis; dry barrens on hilltops and upper slopes associated with Orbexilum pedunculatum, Desmodium spp., Lespedeza, Tephrosia virginiana; also Sorghastrum nutans (L.), and potentially, big bluestem, Andropogon gerardii Vitman (Rice & Hatfield 2025)

Hosts from Wilson & Wheeler 2010, Foster et al. 1981, Rice & Hatfield 2025; plant names from USDA PLANTS.

Recognition

The genus is distinctive, the head has a weevil-like snout (similar to Bruchomorpha); the front and middle legs are modified (flattened and expanded).  Species features more difficult – Doering (1941) provides key, but she didn’t have all the species available to her; some taxa require comparison with known specimens or review of original descriptions.

The genus was reviewed by Hendrix & Bartlett (2025).

Key to Species of Fitchiella (From Lawson 1933).

1 Head process knobbed at apex … 2
1- Head process not knobbed at apex … 3

2 Light species marked with black, females 4 mm. long; fore and middle tibiae slightly expanded … robertsonii Fitch.
2- Brownish species, females 5 mm. long; fore and middle tibiae greatly expanded … fitchii Melichar.

3 Front with longitudinal white stripe [see bugguide] … albifrons Lawson
3- Front entirely dark … 4

4 Venter of head process and most of the legs reddish … rufipes Lawson
4- Venter of head process black and legs (except in minor) usually entirely black … 5

5 Head process very large and quadrate apically … grandis Lawson
5- Head process smaller and rounded apically … 6

6 Head process quite short; fore tibiae reddish … minor Lawson
6- Head process longer; fore tibiae usually dark … 7

7 Head process longer; fore tibiae very wide . . . .melichari Ball
7- Head process shorter; fore tibiae narrower . . .mediana Lawson

Collecting

Most often taken sweeping.

Molecular resources 

As of this writing, Genbank has 4 genes for Fitchiella rufipes and one (COI barcode) for F. robertsonii; Barcode of Life has data for 3 species.

Selected references

Amyot, C.J.B. and J. G. A. Serville. 1843. Deuxième partie. Homoptères. Homoptera Latr. In Histoire naturelle des Insectes. Hémiptères. Librairie Encyclopédique de Roret, Paris. P.: i-lxxvi, 1-676. Plate(s): 1-12. [See pp. 455-588 and pls. 9-12].

Ball, E.D. 1910. New genera and species of Issidae. (Fulgoridae). Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 23: 41-45.

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.

Bess, J. 2005. Conservation Assessment for Fitch’s Elephanthopper (Fitchiella robertsoni (Fitch)). Eastern Region of the Forest Service – Threatened and Endangered Species Program, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

de Freitas, A.S., C.H. Dietrich & D.M. Takiya. 2020. Five new species of Caliscelidae (Insecta, Hemiptera) from Mexico and Panama, with additional redescriptions of little-known species. European Journal of Taxonomy 717: 27-69. https://doi.org/10.5852/ejt.2020.717.1097.

de Freitas, A.S. 2019. Revisão taxonômica e filogenia dos Caliscelidae da região Neotropical (Insecta: Hemiptera). M.S. dissertação, programa de pós-graduação em biodiversidade e biologia evolutiva, universidade federal do rio de janeiro. Universidade Federal Do Rio de Janeiro Programa de Pós-Graduação em Biodiversidade E Biologia Evolutiva. Xvii+ 363 Pp.

Doering, K.C. 1941. A contribution to the taxonomy of the subfamily Issinae in America north of Mexico (Fulgoridae, Homoptera). Part IV. University of Kansas Science Bulletin 27: 185-233.

Emeljanov, A.F. 1999. Notes on delimitation of families of the Issidae group with description of a new species of Caliscelidae belonging to a new genus and tribe (Homoptera, Fulgoroidea). Zoosystematica Rossica 8(1): 61-72.

Fitch, A. 1856. Third report on noxious and other insects of the State of New York. Transactions of the New-York State Agricultural Society 16: 315-490.

Foster, D.E. , D.N. Ueckert & C.J. Deloach. 1981. Insects associated with broom snakeweed [Xanthocephalum sarothrae] and threadleaf snakeweed [Xanthocephalum microcephala] in west Texas and eastern New Mexico. Journal of Range Management 34(6): 446-454. [record of Fitchiella rufipes] DOI: 10.2307/3898096;  http://www.jstor.org/stable/3898096.

Henderson, R. 2011. Robertson’s Flightless Planthopper (Fitchiella robertsoni). Wisconsin DNR Species Status Assessment Worksheet. Madison, Wisconsin. 10 Pp.

Hendrix, S.V., C.R. Bartlett, & A.S. de Freitas. 2025. Revised generic placement of Bruchomorpha rugosa Metcalf (Hemiptera: Fulgoroidea: Caliscelidae) with an assessment of Fitchiella Van Duzee, a genus of conservation Interest. Zootaxa 5618 (1): 079–096. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5618.1.5

Lawson, P.B. 1933. The genus Fitchiella (Homoptera, Fulgoridae). Bulletin of the Brooklyn Entomological Society 28: 194-198.

Metcalf, Z.P. 1958. General Catalogue of the Homoptera. Fascicle IV, Fulgoroidea, Part 15, Issidae. Waverly Press, Inc., Baltimore, Maryland.

Rice, M., & N. Hatfield. 2025. What once was lost, now is found: Discovery and ecology of an elusive ball-nosed planthopper, Fitchiella robertsonii (Hemiptera: Caliscelidae), from tallgrass prairie. Annals of the Entomological Society of America 118. https://doi.org/10.1093/aesa/saaf026

Van Duzee, E.P. 1917. Catalogue of the Hemiptera of America North of Mexico excepting the Aphididae, Coccidae and Aleurodidae. Technical Bulletin. University of California, College of Agriculture, Agricultural Experiment Station. Entomology. 2: 1-902.

Wilson, S.W., C. Mitter, R.F. Denno & M.R. Wilson. 1994. Evolutionary patterns of host plant use by delphacid planthoppers and their relatives. In: R.F. Denno & T.J. Perfect, (eds.). Planthoppers: Their Ecology and Management. Chapman and Hall, New York. Pp. 7-45 & Appendix.

Wilson, S.W. & A.G. Wheeler jr. 2010. Planthopper (Hemiptera: Fulgoroidea) diversity of weeping lovegrass (Eragrostis curvula), an introduced host of little known, rarely collected native species. Entomologica Americana 116(3/4): 98–106.