[Back to North American Derbidae]
Contents
Family Derbidae Spinola, 1839
Subfamily Derbinae Spinola, 1839
Tribe Cenchreini Muir, 1917
Genus Neocenchrea Metcalf, 1923
Type species: Cenchrea heidemanni Ball, 1902b.
Synonyms
None.
Distribution
USA: eastern US (esp. southeast), Neotropics.
Recognized species
There are 5 species in the genus [Metcalf catalog: Metcalf 1945: 103]
Neocenchrea bakeri McAtee (1924: 177) – Mexico (locality not reported)
Neocenchrea heidemanni (Ball 1902: 261) – USA: DC, DE, IL, KS, MD, NC, NJ, OH, VA (Bugguide adds AR, FL, GA, LA, MO, OK, PA, TN, WV)
Neocenchrea mero Fennah, 1952: 137 – Trinidad
Neocenchrea ochracea Metcalf 1945: 128 – Guyana (British Guiana)
Neocenchrea pallida Metcalf 1938: 332 – Panama, Puerto Rico
Neocenchrea spreta (Fowler 1904) – Mexico [this combination most recently used by Broomfield 1985: 77] but Broomfield evidently missed an earlier placement of this species is Persis by Fennah 1952: 141].
Neocenchrea pallescens Metcalf, 1938: 332 placed as Persis (Anapersis) pallescens (Metcalf, 1938) by Fennah (1952: 141).
Neocenchrea gregaria Fennah, 1945: 443, to Persis (Anapersis) gregaria (Fennah, 1945) by Fennah (1952: 141).
Economic Importance
Unknown; members of this genus have been collected in association with palm disease vector surveys (but Omolicna species and the cixiid Haplaxius crudus are more often encountered in that context).
Plant associations
Neocenchrea sp. – Cocos nucifera L. (coconut palm, Arecaceae), Sabal umbraculifera Mart. (Arecaceae), Veitchia merrillii (Becc.) H.E. Moore (Arecaceae)
Hosts from Wilson et al. 1994; plant names from USDA PLANTS or Tropicos.
Recognition
Pale, robust; frons compressed but not extremely; pustules along claval vein; clavus closed, media and cubitus each with 2 veins, Lateral margins of pronotum strongly foliate posterior to antennae.
Genus keys out here in Metcalf 1923; and here in Bartlett et al 2014.
Metcalf 1938: 331 describes the genus as follows
Head narrow with narrow crown and forehead, both of which have strongly elevated lateral margins and are without a median carina. Antennal foveae on pronotum strongly developed. Tegminse long and narrow; three main veins of corium bifurcate; radius separated from subcosta before the level of the apex of clavus, media branched just beyond apex of clavus and first cubital sector branching at about same level as the union of claval veins.
Fennah 1945:443 comments
Vertex rather narrow, lateral margins raised, converging anteriorly; frons narrow, devoid of median carina, margins raised. Pronotum with deep antennal foveae. Tegmina elongate, narrow; Sc + R forking before level of apex of clavus, M forking just beyond apex of clavus, Cu1 forking at level of junction of claval veins. Egg ovoid, smooth, transparent.
(living examples are often white-waxy on much of the wings and body, lateral parts of mesonotum yellowish.)
Online resources
bugguide.
EOL.
FLOW.
Discover Life.
iNaturalist.
Hoppers of North Carolina.
Maryland Biodiversity Project.
BOLD. (Genus not present, link to subfamily)
Online resources
FLOW.
Collecting
Occasionally comes to lights.
Molecular resources
There is now COI barcode and 18S data for Neocenchrea heidemanni (7 July 2020).
Selected references
Ball, E. D. 1902b. New genera and species of North American Fulgoridae. Canadian Entomologist 34: 259-266.
Barringer, L. E. and C. R. Bartlett. 2018. Pennsylvania planthoppers (Hemiptera: Auchenorrhyncha: Fulgoroidea): relative abundance and incidental catch using novel trapping methods. Insecta Mundi 0661: 1–31.
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.
Broomfield, P. S. 1985. Taxonomy of Neotropical Derbidae in the new tribe Mysidiini (Homoptera). Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) Entomology 50(1): 1-152.
Emeljanov, A.F. 1995. On the problem of a system and a phylogeny of the family Derbidae (Homoptera, Cicadina). Entomologicheskoe Obozrenie 73(4): 783-811 & 946-947. [Russian] [English Transaltion: Emeljanov.1996. Entomological Review 75(2): 70-100]
Fennah, R.G. 1944. The Morphology of the tegmina and wings of the Fulgoroidea (Homoptera). Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington 46(7): 185–199. [genus noted]
Fennah, R.G. 1945. The Fulgoroidea, or lanternflies, of Trinidad and adjacent parts of South America. Proceedings of the United States National Museum 95(3184): 411–520. [here]
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.
McAtee, W. L. 1924. Notes on Cenchrea Westwood and Cedusa Fowler in America (Homoptera: Fulgoroidea). Annals of the Entomological Society of America17: 175-187.
Metcalf, Z. P. 1923. 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. [available from http://www.lib.unc.edu/dc/jncas/]
Metcalf, Z. P. 1938a. The Fulgorina of Barro Colorado and other parts of Panama. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard Collections. 82: 277-423. [Available from http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org]
Metcalf, Z. P. 1945. Fulgoroidea (Homoptera) of Kartabo, Bartica district, British Guiana. Zoologica. Scientific Contributions of the New York Zoological Society 30: 125-144.
Metcalf, Z.P. 1945. General Catalogue of the Hemiptera. Fascicle IV, Fulgoroidea, Part 4, Derbidae. Smith College, Northhampton, Massachusetts.
Muir, F. A. G. 1917. The Derbidae of the Philippine Islands. Philippine Journal of Science 12: 49-105.
O’Brien, L. B. 1982. Two Neotropical derbid genera with observations on wing rolling (Fulgoroidea: Homoptera). Florida Entomologist 65(3): 306-321.
Segarra-Carmona, A., R. A. Franqui and M. Otero-Arocho. 2013. Survey of palm-associated Fulgoroidea in Puerto Rico. Journal of Agriculture of the University of Puerto Rico 97(3-4): 107-117.
Spinola, M. 1839. Essai sur les Fulgorelles, sous-tribu de la tribu des Cicadaires, ordre des Rhyngotes. Annales de la Société Entomologique de France 8: 133-337.
Wilson, S. W. and J. E. McPherson. 1980a. Keys to the planthoppers, or Fulgoroidea, of Illinois (Homoptera). Transactions of the Illinois Academy of Science 73(2): 1‑61.
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. and J. E. McPherson. 1980c. A list of the Fulgoroidea (Homoptera) of southern Illinois. Great Lakes Entomologist 13(1): 25-30.
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