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Family Delphacidae Leach, 1815
Subfamily Kelisiinae Wagner, 1963
Tribe Kelisiini Wagner, 1963
(formative draft)
Subfamily Kelisiinae contains only the single tribe Kelisiini. Kelisiini includes two genera:
Genus Anakelisia Wagner, 1963 (Type species Ditropis fasciata Kirschbaum, 1868; contains 2 species, Palearctic)
Genus Kelisia Fieber, 1866 (Type species Delphax guttula Germar, 1818: ~46 species, Holarctic)
Plant associates. The Kelisiinae appear to be uniformly sedge specialists.
The Kelisiinae were proposed as a subfamily by Wagner (1963), and since that time have either been (mostly) treated as a subfamily, or as a tribe within Delphacinae. Kelisiinae were considered as a tribe of Delphacinae by Emeljanov (1995), and as a subtribe (Kelsiina) of the tribe Stenocranini (in Delphacinae) by Hamilton (2006). However, the cladistic morphological analyses by Asche (1985, 1990) and the molecular phylogeny of Urban et al. both support subfamilial status of Kelisiinae.
Urban et al. (2010) examined the higher classification of Delphacidae using 4 genes and morphology. Their work largely substantiated the phylogeny of the high taxa of Delphacidae as initially proposed by Asche (1985). Some support was found for the sister-group relationship between the Kelisiinae and Stenocraninae, but since the support was equivocal, they proposed maintaining these taxa as subfamilies until the issue could be more closely examined.
The main synapomorphy of the Kelisiinae is the presence of a process on the connection between segment 10 and the aedeagus (the “subanal process”). The sperm-conducting tube of the aedeagus is sclerotized (in contrast with the Delphacinae sensu Asche), and there is often a vestigial flagellum on the end of the aedeagus. It appears that all species lack processes on segment 10 (the anal tube). The calcar is flattened (inner surface slightly concave), bearing large teeth. The tymbal of the male is sexually dimorphic (as in all higher delphacids) and the apodemes of the 2nd abdominal sternite are directed caudad (not dorsad is an Plesiodelphacinae).
Selected references
Anufriev, G. A. and A. F. Emeljanov. 1988. Volume II: Homoptera and Heteroptera. In: P.A. Lehr (ed.). Keys to the Insects of the Far East of the USSR in Six Volumes, Transliteration of the Russian title: Opredelitel’ nasekomykh Dal’nego Vostoka SSSR v shesti tomakh. Vol. 2. Ravnokrylye i poluzhestkokrylye. In: P.A. Lehr, (ed.). Keys to the Insects of the Far East of the USSR in Six Volume. Nauka, Leningrad.
Asche, M. 1982. Kelisia creticola nov. spec. und Erganzungen zu den ubrigen Taxa des Kelisia brucki Fieber, 1878 – Kreises (Homoptera Cicadina Delphacidae). Marburger Entomologische Publikationen 1(6): 89-166.
Asche, M. 1985. Zur Phylogenie der Delphacidae Leach, 1815 (Homoptera: Cicadina: Fulgoromorpha). Marburger Entomologische Publikationen Marburger Entomologische Publikationen 2(1):1-398 AND 2(2): 399-910.
Asche, M. 1986. Kelisia riboceros nov. spec. from Greece – an important finding for the phylogeny of Kelisiinae (Homoptera Fulgoromorpha Delphacidae). Marburger Entomologische Publikationen 2(3): 179-192.
Asche, M. 1990. Vizcayinae, a new subfamily of Delphacidae with revision of Vizcaya Muir (Homoptera: Fulgoroidea) – a significant phylogenetic link. Bishop Museum Occasional Papers 30: 154-187.
Bartlett, C. R. and A. G. Wheeler, Jr. 2007. Kelisia and Stenocranus species (Hemiptera: Fulgoromorpha: Delphacidae): new host-plant associations and distributional records of eight sedge-feeding planthoppers. Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington 109(2): 400-415.
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. The genus Kelisia in America North of Mexico (Homoptera: Fulgoridae: Delphacinae). Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society 18(3): 100-108.
Beamer, R. H. 1951. A review of the genus Kelisia in America North of Mexico. Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society 24(3): 117-121.
Ding, J. H. 2006. Fauna Sinica Insecta Vol. 45 Homoptera Delphacidae. Science Press, Beijing, China.
Emeljanov, A. F. 1995. On the problem of classification and phylogeny of the family Delphacidae (Homoptera, Cicadina) taking into consideration larval characters. Entomologicheskoe Obozrenie 74(4): 780-794&944-945. [Russian] [English Transaltion: Emeljanov, A. F. 1996. Entomological Review 75(9):134-150]
Fieber, F. X. 1866b. Grundzüge zur generischen Theilung der Delphacini. Verhandlungen der Kaiserlich-Königlichen Zoologish-botanischen Gesellschaft in Wien 16: 517-534.
Hamilton, K.G.A. 2006. The planthopper genus Stenocranus in Canada: implications for classification of Delphacidae (Hemiptera). Canadian Entomologist, 138(4): 493-503.
Holzinger, W. E., I. Kammerlander, and H. Nickel. 2003. Fulgoromorpha, Cicadomorpha excluding Cicadellidae. Volume 1. The Auchenorrhyncha of Central Europe. Brill Academic Publishing, Leiden, Netherlands.
Leach, W. E. 1815a. Entomology. The Edinburg encyclopedia; conducted by David Brewster 9: 57-172. (family Delphacidae p. 125).
Metcalf, Z. P. 1943. General Catalogue of the Hemiptera. Fascicle IV, Fulgoroidea, Part 3, Araeopidae (Delphacidae). Smith College, Northhampton, Massachusetts.
Nickel, H. 2003. The Leafhoppers and Planthoppers of Germany (Hemiptera, Auchenorrhyncha), Patterns and strategies in a highly diverse group of phytophagous insects , Pensoft Series Faunistica 28, Sofia, Bulgaria
Remane, R. and R. Jung. 1995. Beiträge zum Artenbestand der europäischen Kelisiinen (Auchenorrhyncha, Fulgoromorpha, Delphacidae). Marburger Entomologische Publikationen 2(9): 1-70.
Remane, R. and A. Guglielmino. 2002. Female ectodermal gentalia of the taxa Kelsia guttula – group (Homoptera Fulgormorpha Delphacidae): not only an example for specialized coorganization with male genitalia without obvious reasons, but also a character set apt for species discrimination in westpalaearctic taxa? Marburger Entomologische Publikationen 3(2): 21-38 .
Ribaut, H. 1934. Nouveaux Delphacides (Homoptera-Fulgoroidea). Bulletin de la Societe d`Histoire Naturelle de Toulouse 66 (2): 281-301.
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.
Wagner, W. 1963 [dated 1962]. Dynamische Taxionomie, angewandt auf die Delphaciden Mitteleuropas. Mitteilungen aus dem Hamburgischen Zoologischen Museum und Institut 60: 111-189.
