[Back to North American Derbidae]
Contents
Family Derbidae Spinola, 1839
Subfamily Otiocerinae Muir, 1917
Tribe Sikaianini Muir, 1913
Genus Mula Ball, 1928
Type species (in original combination): Mula resonans Ball, 1928.
Synonyms
None.
Distribution
Southwest USA and Caribbean, plus one species in Taiwan.
Distribution of Mula from FLOW (10 Oct. 2018)
Recognized species
There are three recognized species in the genus:
- Mula chushanensis Yang & Wu, 1993 – Taiwan
- Mula resonans Ball, 1928 [Metcalf 1945: 62]- USA: FL, LA, MS
- Mula thrinacis Fennah, 1952: 117 – St. Lucia
Economic Importance
Limited – species are infrequently encountered.
Plant associations
Derbidae are known or assumed to feed on fungal hyphae as immatures. The significance of adult host associations are unclear. Hosts from Fennah (1952) and Wilson et al. (1994); plant names from USDA PLANTS or Tropicos.
Mula resonans – Sabal palmetto (Walter) Lodd. ex Schult. & Schult. f. (cabbage palmetto, Arecaceae)
Mula thrinacis – Thrinax sp. (Arecales, Arecaceae) according to Fennah 1952: 117.
Recognition
Small, very fragile forms; wings greatly exceeding abdomen, frons extremely compressed, antennae lacking appendages, head only slightly projecting in front of eyes (less than diameter of eye), clavus open, first cell of forewing distinctly triangular, widest at midlength, narrowed both anteriorly and posteriorly; dark markings on wing mostly along veins; hindwings narrow, strap-shaped, with two longitudinal veins.
Mula genus description from Ball 1928
Mula resonans description from Ball 1928
It appears that Mula resonans is on Sabal palmetto, but these were hardly in the deep shade of the densest swamps.
Mula resonans on Sabal palmetto (Broward Co., FL; Photo by Brian Bahder)
Mula resonans on Sabal palmetto (Photo by Brian Bahder)
Mula resonans on Sabal palmetto (Photo by Brian Bahder)
Mula resonans on Sabal palmetto (Photo by Brian Bahder)
Mula resonans (photographs by Kimberley Shropshire, University of Delaware; the top right photo is a better representation of how they carry their wings at rest, even though it is covered with junk from a malaise trap; I have seen very few of these).
Mula thrinacis from Fennah 1952
Fennah 1952: 117 notes “This species [thrinacis] differs from M. resonans Ball in tegminal coloration. Mula differs from Muiria and Sikaiana in tegminal venation, and from the latter in possessing very much smaller wings (which in S. hyalinata, the type species, are about half as long as the tegmina) and three extra spines at the apex of the post-tibiae.”
Mula chushanensis from Yang & Wu 1993
Online resources
3i.
EOL.
Bugguide. (As of this writing, there are no photos of Mula on Bugguide; link to subfamily.)
Discover Life.
FLOW.
Hoppers of North Carolina. (n/a)
Kunzweb Gallery. (Genus not present, link to family)
American Insects. (Genus not present, link to family)
BOLD. (Genus not present, link to subfamily)
Collecting
Most of the observed specimens were found in malaise traps.
Molecular resources
As of this writing (10 Oct. 2018), there are appears to be no molecular data for this genus on Genbank OR Barcode of Life.
Selected references
Ball, E. D. 1928. Some new genera and species of N. A. Derbidae with notes on others (Fulgoridae). Canadian Entomologist 60: 196-201.
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.
Emeljanov, A. F. 1996. On the system and phylogeny of the family Derbidae (Homoptera, Cicadina). Entomological Review 75: 70-100). (Translation of Entomologicheskoe Obozrenie 1995, 73: 783-811, Russian summary 946-947).
Fennah, R. G. 1952. On the generic classification of Derbidae (Fulgoroidea), with descriptions of new Neotropical species. Transactions of the Royal Entomological Society of London 103(4): 109-170.
Metcalf, Z. P. 1945. General Catalogue of the Hemiptera. Fascicle IV, Fulgoroidea, Part 4, Derbidae. Smith College, Northhampton, Massachusetts. [p. 62]
Muir, F. A. G. 1913. On some new species of leafhoppers. Part II. Derbidae. Bulletin. Hawaiian Sugar Planters’ Association Experiment Station. Division of Entomology 12: 28-92.
Muir, F. A. G. 1917. The Derbidae of the Philippine Islands. Philippine Journal of Science 12: 49-105.
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.
Yang, Chung-Tu and Rong-Hwa Wu. 1993. Derbidae of Taiwan (Homoptera: Fulgoroidea). National Chung Hsing University, Department of Entomology, Taichung (China, Taiwan). 230 pp.
Wilson, S. W. and J. E. McPherson. 1980b. The distribution of the Fulgoroidea of the eastern United States (Homoptera). Transactions of the Illinois Academy of Science 73(4): 7‑20.
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
