Genus Paramysidia Broomfield, 1985

[back to Classification of the Derbidae]
[back to North American Derbidae]

Family Derbidae Spinola, 1839

Subfamily Derbinae Spinola, 1839

Tribe Derbini Spinola, 1839

=  Mysidiini Broomfield, 1985; syn. by Emeljanov 1996a: 74.

Genus Paramysidia Broomfield, 1985

Type species (in original combination): Mysidia mississippiensis Dozier, 1922.

Synonyms

None.

Distribution

USA: Gulf Coast and Neotropics

Recognized species

There are 7 species, only one of which occurs in the U.S..

1. Paramysidia barbara Broomfield 1985:106 – Honduras, Costa Rica, El Salvador
2. Paramysidia boudica Broomfield 1985: 107 – Panama
3. Paramysidia felix Broomfield 1985: 106 – Brazil (Para)
4. Paramysidia mississippiensis (Dozier, 1922: 82) [Metcalf 1985: 68]- USA: USA: FL, LA, MS, OK, TX [Bugguide adds AL, AR, GA, KY, IN, NC, OH, SC, TN, i.e., all of the SE states plus OH, KY, IN]
5. Paramysidia nigropunctata (Metcalf, 1938) [Metcalf 1945: 69] – Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua
6. Paramysidia tessellata Broomfield 1985: 107 – Costa Rica
7. Paramysidia vulgaris Broomfield 1985: 106 – Brazil (Para, Mato Grosso), Peru

Economic Importance

Limited.

Plant associations

Paramysidia mississippiensis – Sabal palmetto (Walter) Lodd. ex Schult. & Schult. f. (cabbage palmetto, Arecaceae), Acer (Maple, Aceraceae)

Hosts from Wilson et al. 1994; plant names from USDA PLANTS or Tropicos.

Recognition

Revised by Broomfield (1985).  Mysidia and Paramysidia are the only U.S. derbids that hold their wings in a ‘mothlike’ pose.  Paramysidia is larger (ca. 7 mm) than Mysidia (ca. 4 mm., and lacks the conspicuous spots).  Clavus closed, Second antennal segment globular, Cubital vein of forewing four branched (CuA and M4 basally connected by crossvein)

Broomfield (1985: 104) comments:

“Paramysidia differs from Mysidia as follows: the armature of the aedeagus is strongly asymmetrical and includes a prominent process at midlength on the mid-dorsal line; the development of the dorsal process of the paramere is usually strongly reduced, its function possibly being, at least partially, taken over by the hook-like secondary process.”

Since Broomfield (1985) gave only genital features in his description of Paramysidia to separate that genus from Mysidia, below is his key to genera of Mysidiini  (which is Derbini less Derbe).

Key to genera of Mysidiini (from Broomfield 1985: 7-8; figure and page references are to that work; note that only Dysimia and Paramysidia occur in the US.)

1 Medial vein of tegmen with 11 branches extending to posterior and apical margins (Fig. 11) … PSEUDOMYSIDIA Metcalf (p. 77)
1- Medial vein of tegmen with not more than seven branches … 2

2(1) Cubital vein of tegmen two-branched; medial vein six-branched (Fig. 5) … SYMIDIA Muir (p. 108)
2- Cubital vein of tegmen three- or four-branched; medial vein seven-branched … 3

3(2) Cubital vein of tegmen three-branched (Fig. 9) … DYSIMIA Muir (p. 87)
3- Cubital vein of tegmen four-branched … 4

4(3) Second antennal segment not longer than 2.5 times maximum width … 5
4- Second antennal segment 5.0 times as long as maximum width (Fig. 16) … MYSIDALOIDES Broomfield (p. 98)

5(4) Wing with medial vein unbranched (Fig. 3). Male with posterior margin of subgenital plate produced (Fig. 160) … DYSIMIELLA Broomfield (p. 96)
5- Wing with medial vein two-branched . Male subgenital plate transverse … 6

6(5) Head with length of frons little greater than width at base, c. 2.5 times width at apex (Fig. 31) NEOMYSIDIA Broomfield (p. 99)
6- Proportions of frons not as above … 7

7(6) Tegmen with subcostal and radial veins fused over c. basal third of length … 8
7- Tegmen with subcostal and radial veins fused to c. mid-length … 9

8(7) Length of frons not less than twice width at base (Fig. 33). Tegmen with radial and medial veins distinct subbasally (Fig. 7) … MYSIDIA Westwood (p. 9)
8- Length of frons less than twice width at base (Fig. 25). Tegmen with radial and medial veins fused over basal sixth of length (Fig. 4) … AMYSIDIELLA Broomfield (p. 101)

9(7) Pronotal width less than 10 times length at the mid-dorsal line (Fig. 21). Length of frons 3 times width at apex (Fig. 26) … IPSEMYSIDIA Broomfield (p. 100)
9- Pronotal width not less than 10 times length at the mid-dorsal line (Fig. 20). Length of frons at least 4 times width at apex (Fig. 27) … PARAMYSIDIA Broomfield (p. 103)

Key to species of Paramysidia (based on external characters) (lightly edited from Broomfield 1985)
Broomfield notes: “Due to the extreme external similarity of many species, reference should be made, where possible, to the structure of the male genitalia.”
1 Tegmen with cross-veins and forks of veins not distinctly margined smoky brown. Southeastern U.S.A …  mississippiensis (Dozier)
1- Tegmen with cross-veins and forks of veins broadly margined smoky brown … 2

2(1) Tegmen with veins yellowish or pale brown  … 3
2- Tegmen with veins dark brown …  4

3(2) Clypeus with length less than that of frons; genae often tinged orange; fronto-lateral surfaces of pronotum with carinae orange. Peru … vulgaris Broomfield
3- Clypeus with length equal to that of frons; head and body unmarked. Brazil … felix Broomfield

4(2) Clypeus with length not greater than that of frons; frons with length less than 5 times width at apex … 5
4- Clypeus with length one-third greater than that of frons; frons with length almost 6 times
width at apex. Honduras, Costa Rica, El Salvador … barbara Broomfield

5( 4) Width of pronotum 11 times length at mid-dorsal line … 6
5- Width ofpronotum greater than 13 times length at mid-dorsal line. Panama … boudica Broomfield

6(5) Rostrum extending to mid-length of abdomen. Costa Rica …  tessellata Broomfield
6- Rostrum terminating immediately posterior to hind coxae. Costa Rica, Panama …
nigropunctata (Metcalf)

(specimen photographs by Kimberley Shropshire, University of Delaware)

Paramysidia mississippiensis (Georgia, county Clarke, Athens, 1 July 2013, John Pickering, Discover Life)

Online resources
bugguide. (much more attractive in life).
Hoppers of North Carolina.
iNaturalist.
GBIF.
Discover Life.
FLOW.
Texas Planthoppers.
3I Interactive Keys and Taxonomic Databases.
Naturalista.
Bio-Nica.
Symbiota SCAN.
BOLD. (genus not present, link to subfamilies)

Collecting

Sometimes at lights, also found my inspection of plants.  There sure are a lot of photos of Paramysidia online given how infrequent the species is in collections.

Molecular resources

As of this writing (24 Oct. 2018), there are no molecular data for this genus on Barcode of Life or Genbank.

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.

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.

Dozier, H. L. 1922. A synopsis of the genus Stenocranus, and a new species of Mysidia (Homoptera). Ohio Journal of Science 22: 69-82.

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. 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. 1938. The Fulgorina of Barro Colorado and other parts of Panama. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard Collections 82: 277-423.

Metcalf, Z.P. 1945. General Catalogue of the Hemiptera. Fascicle IV, Fulgoroidea, Part 4, Derbidae. Smith College, Northhampton, Massachusetts.

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., 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