[Back to North American Cixiidae]
Contents
Family Cixiidae Spinola, 1839
Subfamily Cixiinae Spinola, 1839
Tribe Pentastirini Emeljanov, 1971
Genus: Antilliarus Hendrix & Bartlett, 2025
Type species Oliarus slossoni Van Duzee, 1912
Distribution
Primarily Neotropical, especially the Antillean islands (as far south as Curaçao) to southern Florida; also present in Mexico.
Recognized species
Antilliarus aztecus (Caldwell, 1947): Mexico (México).
Antilliarus jamaicensis (Fennah, 1945): Jamaica.
Antilliarus pirata (Fennah, 1971): Cayman Islands (Grand Cayman).
Antilliarus slossoni (Van Duzee, 1912): USA (FL); Cuba; Puerto Rico; Virgin Islands (Great Camanoe, Guana, Jost Van Dyke, Little Thatch, St. John, St. Thomas, Tortola)
Economic Importance
Not reported as pests,
Plant associations
Antilliarus jamaicensis – Haematoxylum campechianum L. (as logwood; Fabaceae); Agave sp. (Fennah 1945).
Antilliarus slossoni – Agave americana L. (Agavaceae) (St. Thomas, Guana BVI); Rhizophora mangle L. (Red Mangrove, Puerto Rico); Tabebuia Gomes ex DC. (Bignoniaceae, Cuba); Trema micrantha (L.) Blume (Ulmaceae, Florida), Sabal etonia Swingle ex Nash (Arecaceae, Florida); ×Citrofortunella microcarpa (Bunge) Wijnands [Citrus reticulata × Fortunella japonica, as calamondin; Rutaceae, Florida], Flaveria linearis Lag. (Asteraceae), and ‘Lucuma roxburgii’ (sic roxburghii)’ (Sapotaceae, intended species unclear) (Mead & Kramer 1982, Bartlett 2000).
Recognition
Medium-sized planthoppers (typically ~6–7 mm); reddish-brown. Vertex relatively narrow; transverse carinae of vertex greatly angled, lateral maculae present. Eyes mottled with red spots. Frons broad with prominent, but diffuse, yellow maculae. Rostrum very long, exceeding hind trochanters. Mesonotum with carinae concolorous to orange. Forewing veins pale with tubercles concolorous; unmarked or with variable transverse dark bar proximally. Male terminalia with short trilobed medioventral pygofer process; narrow periandrium lacking sinistral process, but with slender dextral and subapical processes; narrow endosoma with enlarged and bulbous apex with three apical processes.
A key to genus is in Hendrix & Bartlett (2025). North American species can be keyed out by Mead & Kramer (1982)
Antilliarus gen. nov., A–D Oliarus borinquensis (holotype, male); A) dorsal habitus view, B) lateral habitus view,
C) frontal view, D) head and thorax; E) ventral view of cleared male terminalia (Antilliarus nr. slossoni).
Wing of Antilliarus slossoni
Online resources
Collecting
Pentastirini are most readily collected at lights; specimens may also be found by beating or vacuum sampling woody vegetation. Antilliarus slossoni may be found (at least in the Virgin Islands) on the underside of century plant leaves.
Molecular resources
Selected references
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.
Berg, C. 1879. Hemiptera Argentina (Continuacion). Anales de la Sociedad Cientifica Argentina 8: 178–192.
Bourgoin, T. & M.R. Wilson. 1998. Description of two new species of South American Oliarus Stål (Homoptera: Fulgoromorpha: Cixiidae), including a rice-associated species from Peru. Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington 100(1): 108–113.
Caldwell, J.S. 1947. New Fulgoroidea from North America (Homoptera). Ohio Journal of Science, 47, 76–78.
Campodonico, J.F. 2018. Nueva especie de Melanoliarus Fennah (Hemiptera Cixiidae) del extremo norte de Chile. Revista Chilena de Entomologia 44(1): 23–28.
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.
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.
Say, T. 1830a+b. Descriptions of new North American hemipterous insects, belonging to the first family of the section Homoptera of Latreille. Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. 6:235-244, 299–314.
Walker, F. 1858. Supplement. List of the specimens of Homopterous Insects in the collection of the British Museum. Edward
Newman, London, 307 pp.
Van Duzee, E.P. 1912. Hemipterological gleanings. Bulletin of the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences, 10, 477–512.
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 and T.J. Perfect, (eds.). Planthoppers: Their Ecology and Management. Chapman and Hall, New York. Pp. 7–45 & Appendix.
