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Family Delphacidae Leach, 1815

Subfamily Delphacinae Leach, 1815

Tribe Delphacini Leach, 1815

Genus Akemetopon Weglarz and Bartlett, 2011: 52.

Type species: Akemetopon inornatum Weglarz and Bartlett, 2011

Distribution

USA: Arizona, California and Mexico

Recognized species

There are 4 species in the genus:

Akemetopon ainigma Weglarz and Bartlett, 2011: 56 – USA: AZ
Akemetopon comptum (Beamer, 1948).
= Delphacodes compta Beamer, 1948: 115-116.
= Akemetopon comptum (Beamer, 1948); comb. by Bartlett et al. (2014): 109.
Akemetopon inornatum Weglarz and Bartlett, 2011: 53 – USA: AZ
Akemetopon politum Weglarz and Bartlett, 2011: 54 – Mexico (Durango, Zacatecas, Mexico).

Plant associations

“Muhly grass”

Akemetopon ainigma – Muhlenbergia sp. (muhly; Poaceae: Chloridoideae: Eragrostideae)
Akemetopon inornatum –Muhlenbergia rigens (Benth.) Hitchc. (deergrass)
Akemetopon politum – Muhlenbergia sp. Schreb (muhly), Muhlenbergia vaginata Swallen (muhly)

Hosts from Weglarz and Bartlett, 2011; scientific and common names of plants from the USDA Plants database or Tropicos

Economic Importance

Limited.

Recognition

Brown (dark chestnut to pale brown), usually with head pointed in lateral view and with whitish markings on apex of tegmina (macropters unknown).

Key to species of Akemetopon from Weglarz and Bartlett (2011), modified for A. comptum.
1. All carina of frons conspicuous … 2
1′. Median carina of frons not conspicuous, rather obscure… 3

2. Brachypterous forewings dark, without pale apical band, without pale band on posterior margin of pronotum; fastigium pointed in lateral view; Arizona … Akemetopon inornatum
2.’ Brachypterous forewings with pale apical band; pronotum with pale band caudad; fastigium weakly pointed in lateral view…Akemetopon comptum

3. Fastigium rounded in lateral view, carinae of vertex concolorous with foveae, less conspicuous; Arizona … .Akemetopon ainigma
3′. Fastigium pointed in lateral view; lateral and sublateral carinae of vertex conspicuous, paler than foveae; Mexico …Akemetopon politum

Figures from Weglarz and Bartlett 2011.

 

Online resources

Akemetopon at …
EOL
FLOW
Discover Life
Bugguide (not present)
3I Interactive Keys and Taxonomic Databases (Dmitry Dmitriev)

Molecular resources

A portion of the COI sequence was provided in Weglarz and Bartlett (2011), available in the article and Genbank here. BOLD has the genus, but no data.

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.

Beamer, R. H. 1948. Some new species of Delphacodes, Part V (Homoptera: Fulgoridae: Delphacinae). Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society 21(4): 111-119.

Leach, W. E. 1815a. Entomology. The Edinburg encyclopedia; conducted by David Brewster 9: 57-172. (family Delphacidae here)

Weglarz, K. M. and C. R. Bartlett. 2011. Akemetopon, a new genus containing three new species of planthoppers (Hemiptera: Fulgoroidea: Delphacidae). Zootaxa 3007: 50-60. (link to volume, instead of PDF)