Genus Bakerella Crawford, 1914

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Family Delphacidae Leach, 1815

Subfamily Delphacinae Leach, 1815

Tribe Delphacini Leach, 1815

Genus Bakerella Crawford, 1914

[not the plant]

Type species: Bakerella maculata Crawford, 1914.

Distribution

North America

Recognized Species

There are 13 species of Bakerella as follows:

Bakerella angulata Beamer, 1950 – USA: Florida
Bakerella bidens Beamer, 1945 – USA: Arizona, Kansas, New Mexico
Bakerella bullata Beamer, 1950 – USA: Florida, Louisiana, Maryland, Texas
Bakerella cinerea Beamer, 1945 – USA: Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Pennsylvania
Bakerella cornigera Beamer, 1950 – USA: Delaware, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia
Bakerella fusca Beamer, 1945 – USA: Arizona, New Mexico, Texas
Bakerella maculata Crawford, 1914 – USA: Texas; Mexico (Chiapas, Guerrero) (Error: Mississippi, Ohio; Canada: Quebec)
Bakerella minuta Beamer, 1950 – USA: Florida, Georgia
Bakerella muscotana Beamer, 1945 – USA: Kansas, Illinois;, North Carolina, New York Canada: British Columbia
Bakerella pediforma Beamer, 1950 – USA: Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi
Bakerella penefusca Beamer, 1950 – USA: Connecticut, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Vermont; Canada: Ontario
Bakerella rotundifrons Beamer, 1945 – USA: Kansas, Illinois, Texas
Bakerella spinifera Beamer, 1950 – USA: Georgia

Economic Importance

Limited.  Species of Bakerella are uncommonly encountered, although they may be locally abundant. They are underrepresented in collections because of their small size and specialized life history

Plant associations

Presumed to be sedge feeders, particularly on Eleocharis.

Bakerella bidens –  Carex sp.
Bakerella cinerea – Eleocharis palustris (L.) Roem. & Schult. (common spikerush) and Juncus sp.
Bakerella cornigera – Eleocharis sp. (pers. obs.)

Plant associations are from Wilson et al. 1994 and Beamer 1945.

Recognition

(images are males, unless otherwise stated)

Description of genus (from Crawford 1914)
“Allied to Dicranotropis and Megamelus but distinct from both. Head as broad as prothorax, strongly carinate, vertex rather broad, about  square, shghtly produced before eyes; frons very short and broad, almost round; median carina forked slightly above ocelh, strongly divergent; clypeus small, tricarinate; genae following curve of frontal margin, abruptly angled below ocelli. Antennae very short, not reaching to clypeus, I much shorter than II. Lateral carinae of  pronotum curved out, not reaching hind margin. Legs very short; calcar very short, thick, margin scarcely dentate. Elytra maculated.”

Key to species transcribed from Beamer (1950)

1 Anal segment of male without processes … 2
1- Anal segment of male with at least one process … 3

2 Aedeagus in dorsoventral view with a large retrorse spine on each side near middle … bidens Beamer
2- Aedeagus in dorsoventral view without a large retrorse spine on each side near middle …. muscotana Beamer

3 Anal segment of male usually with one process absent or nearly so; elytra of brachypterous form reaching tip of abdomen … 4
3- Anal segment of male with a pair of processes; elytra of brachypterous form not reaching tip of abdomen … 5

4 Aedeagus almost as long a~ length of pygofer, sides nearly parallel; forwings of brachypterous form with bullae at apices … bullata Beamer
4- Aedeagus many times wider at base than at apex; without bullae on ap1ces of elytra … spinifera Beamer

5 Caudoventral margin of pygofer with a long slender dorsally projecting spine … pediforma Beamer
5- Caudoventral margin of pygofer without a long, ‘slender, dorsally projecting spine … 6

6 Anal segment of male with processes long and extremely slender, about as long as width of pygofer … minuta Beamer
6- Anal segment of male with processes normal … 7

7 Anal segment of male with outer surface of processes curved ventrally … 8
7- Anal segment of male with outer surface of processes straight or excavated … 9

8 Aedeagus bent ventrally at about a 45 degree angle on outer third … rotundifrons Beamer
8- Aedeagus bent ventrally at right angle on outer third … angulata Beamer

9 Male with a pair of black horns on connective between aedeagus and anal segment … cornigera Beamer
9- Male without a pair of black horns on connective between aedeagus and anal segment … 10

10. Aedeagus in lateral view narrowed on outer half of dorsal margin … fusca Beamer
10- Aedeagus in lateral view narrowed on outer third of ventral margin … 11

11 Apex of aedeagus in lateral view slightly enlarged, five large retrorse teeth on outer third of dorsal margin … cinerea Beamer
11- Apex of aedeagus in lateral view not enlarged, apical third with many small retrorse teeth … penefusca Beamer.

Distinctive, very small, usually short-winged with a rounded frons that usually bears spots.

Bakerella bidens – Male

Bakerella bullata

Bakerella cinerea

Bakerella cornigera

Bakerella fusca

Bakerella maculata

Bakerella maculata (macropterous female)

Bakerella minuta

Bakerella muscotana

Bakerella muscotana from Beamer 1946

 Molecular resources

At this time (20 Feb. 2020), both Genbank (3 species) and BOLD (5 species) provides limited sequence data for a few species (not to be confused with the plant genus is in the family Loranthaceae).

Bakerella minuta and B. rotundifrons were sequenced for 18S, 28S, CO1, WG in Urban et al. (2010).

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. 1945. Four new species in the genus Bakerella (Homoptera: Fulgoridae). Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society 18(4): 149-154.

Beamer, R. H. 1946.  A new species of Delphacine Fulgorid with notes on four other species. Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society 19(3): 82-87.

Beamer, R. H. 1946.  A new species of Stenocranus and notes on a Bakerella (Homoptera-Fulgoridae-Delphacinae). Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society 19(4): 137-138.

Beamer, R. H. 1950.  The genus Bakerella in America North of Mexico (Homoptera: Fulgoridae). Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society 23(3): 102-109.

Crawford, D. L. 1914a. A contribution toward a monograph of the homopterous insects of the family Delphacidae of North and South America. Proceedings of the United States National Museum 46: 557-640, plus 6 plates.

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

Metcalf, Z. P. 1923a. A key to the Fulgoridae of Eastern North America with descriptions of new species. Journal of the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society 38(3): 139-230, plus 32 plates.

Metcalf, Z. P. 1943. General Catalogue of the Hemiptera. Fascicle IV, Fulgoroidea, Part 3, Araeopidae (Delphacidae). Smith College, Northhampton, Massachusetts. 552 pp.

Urban, J. M., C. R. Bartlett, and J. R. Cryan. 2010. Evolution of Delphacidae (Hemiptera: Fulgoroidea): combined-evidence phylogenetics reveals importance of grass host shifts. Systematic Entomology 35(4): 678-691.

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. Pp. 7-45 & Appendix. In: R. F. Denno and T. J. Perfect, (eds.). Planthoppers: Their Ecology and Management. Chapman and Hall, New York.