[Back to North American Cixiidae]

Family Cixiidae Spinola, 1839

Subfamily Cixiinae Spinola, 1839

Tribe Oecleini Muir, 1922

Genus Nymphocixia Van Duzee, 1923

Type species (in original combination): Nymphocixia unipunctata Van Duzee, 1923.

Synonyms

Nymphomyndus Emeljanov, 2007, syn. with Nymphocixia by Barrantes et al. (2022).

Distribution

Southeastern united States, Caribbean and Mesoamerica (also reported Columbia); records are infrequent and scattered.

Recognized species

Nymphocixia unipunctata Van Duzee 1923: 189 [Metcalf 1936: 240] – USA: SC, FL; Belize, Mexico (Isla Espíritu Santo, Baja California Sur), Columbia
= Nymphocixia vanduzeei Muir 1930:13, according to Kramer 1983: 45.

Nymphocixia unipunctata galapagensis Fennah 1967: 58. combination by implication Kramer 1983: 45.
= Nymphocixia vanduzeei galapagensis Fennah 1967.

Nymphocixia caribbea Fennah, 1971 – Cayman Islands, Jamaica.
=Nymphomyndus caribbea (Fennah) comb. by Emelyanov 2007:113, returned to Nymphocixia in Barrantes et al. (2022).

Economic Importance

Limited.

Known host plants

Nymphocixia unipunctata – Corypha elata Roxb.(Arecaceae), Rhizophora mangle L. (red mangrove, Rhizophoraceae), Laguncularia racemosa (L.) C.F. Gaertn. (white mangrove, Combretaceae), Avicennia germinans (L.) L. (black mangrove, Verbenaceae)

Recently (2017) found in Florida sweeping mangroves.

Hosts from Wilson et al. 1994; plant names from USDA PLANTS or Tropicos.

Recognition

The arrangement of the head is unique – the head appears rounded in lateral view and in dorsal view projects posteriorly to hide the anterior portion of the pronotum.

Van Duzee’s (1923) description of the genus as follows

“Vertex narrow, nearly parallel, confounded with the front in a common convexity, its base produced back to cover the middle of the pronotum and feebly angularly emarginate ; vertex, front and clypeus with three percurrent carina;, the lateral greatly elevated, vertical above, widely oblique below ; front widened to apex, median ocellus distinct; carinae low on the clypeus. Eyes emarginate below. Antennae small, placed at the sinus of the eyes, segment II not longer than wide. Pronotum deeply angularly excavated behind; passing entirely under the shelving base of the vertex between lateral carina; mesonotum tricarinate. Elytra longer than in Oecleus; nervures punctate, radial and ulnar contiguous at base but not fused, connected by a transverse vein radial forked just beyond middle; outer ulnar forked nearer the transverse veins ; stigma broad, the veins beyond it curved ; hind tibiae unarmed.”

Online resources

bugguide
Discover life
EOL
FLOW
BHL. (not completely sure this one will work)
Kunzweb. (some interesting cixiids)
BOLD.
GenBank.

Collecting

Apparently sweeping mangroves and at lights.

Molecular resources

Genbank has data from N. caribbea  and N. unipunctata; barcode of life has submissions from 2 species (3 specimens), but data only from one (at this time).

Selected references

Barrantes E.A.B., Zumbado Echavarria M. A., Bartlett C. R., Helmick E. E. & Bahder B. W. 2022. A new species of Oecleus (Hemiptera: Auchenorrhyncha: Fulgoroidea: Cixiidae) from the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica and a reassessment of the generic status of Nymphomyndus. Zootaxa 5133(4): 509-526. DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5133.4.3

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.

Caldwell, J. S. 1944. Notes on some less common genera of tropical Cixiidae (Homoptera). The Ohio Journal of Science 44(6): 252-254.

Emeljanov, A. F. 2007. New and little known taxa of the family Cixiidae (Homoptera, Fulgoroidea). Entomologicheskoe Obozrenie, 86(1): 107-131.

Fennah, R. G. 1945. The Cixiini of the Lesser Antilles (Homoptera: Fulgoroidea). Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 58: 133-146. pdf

Fennah, R. G. 1967. Fulgoridae of the Galápagos Archipelago. Proceedings of the California Academy of Science, fourth series 35(4): 53-102.

Fennah, R. G. 1971. Fulgoroidea from the Cayman Islands and adjacent Areas. Journal of Natural History 5: 299-342.

Holzinger, W. E., A. F. Emeljanov and I. Kammerlander. 2002. The family Cixiidae Spinola, 1839 (Hemiptera: Fulgoromorpha) – a Review. Denisia 4: 113-138. [systematics of genus].

Kramer, J. P. 1983. Taxonomic study of the planthopper family Cixiidae in the United States (Homoptera: Fulgoroidea). Transactions of the American Entomological Society 109: 1-57.

Metcalf, Z. P. 1936. General Catalogue of the Homoptera. Fascicle IV Fulgoroidea. Part 2 Cixiidae. Smith College, Northhampton, Massachusetts. [see p. 240]

Muir, F.A.G. 1922b. New Malayan Cixiidae (Homoptera). Philippine Journal of Science 20: 111-119, pl. 1-2.

Muir, F.A.G. 1925a. On the genera of Cixiidae, Meenoplidae and Kinnaridae (Fulgoroidea,. Homoptera). Pan-Pacific Entomologist 1: 97-110. [listed on p. 103, which is missing in the BHL copy]

Muir, F.A.G. 1930b. Three new species of American Cixiidae (Fulgoroidea, Homoptera). Pan-Pacific Entomologist 7(1): 12-14. [Bennarella n. gen. with 2 n. spp.; 1 n. sp. Nymphocixia.]

Spinola, M. 1839a. Essai sur les Fulgorelles, sous-tribu de la tribu des Cicadaires, ordre des Rhyngotes. Annales de la Société Entomologique de France 8: 133-337.

Stål, C. 1862a. Novae vel minus cognitae Homopterorum formae et species. Berliner Entomologische Zeitschrift 6: 303-315.

Van Duzee, E. P. 1923. Expedition of the California Academy of Sciences to the Gulf of California in 1921 – The Hemiptera (True Bugs, etc.). Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences (Ser. 4) 12: 123-200. [see p. 119]

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.