[Back to North American Dictyopharidae]

Family Dictyopharidae Spinola, 1839

Subfamily Orgeriinae Fieber, 1872

Tribe Orgeriini Fieber, 1872

Genus Acinaca Ball & Hartzell, 1922: 146.

Type species (in original combination): Acinaca lurida Ball & Hartzell, 1922: 146.

Synonyms:

None.

Distribution:

Distribution of Acinaca from FLOW (1 Oct 2018)

Southwestern US.

Recognized species

There is a single recognized species:

1. Acinaca lurida Ball & Hartzell, 1922: 146 [Metcalf 1946: 219] – USA: AZ, CA, NM

Economic Importance:

Limited.

Known host plants:

• Acinaca lurida – Eriogonum fasciculatum Benth. (Eastern Mojave buckwheat, Polygonaceae)

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

Recognition:

Brachypterous, leaving several terga visible from above, tegulae hidden (all Orgeriinae); no callosity behind eye; head angulate in lateral view, produced in front of eyes for distance greater than 2/3 width of eyes; head widening toward apex in lateral view.

I have seen specimens of this species in long series in museum collections.

Keys to genus of US Orgeriinae in Doering & Darby 1943 and Doering (1955), although Emljanov (2006) revised some generic concepts.

Description of genus from Ball and Hartzell 1922: 146: [See also Doering 1955: 210]

Resembling Yucanda in structure, but with a very much smaller, shorter and more compressed cephalic process.
Cephalic process moderately long, strongly compressed, narrowing toward the apex; as seen from the side, flat and widens rapidly to a slightly rounding truncate apex, curving upwards, strongly inclined, much wider at apex than at base. The vertex is narrow, less than the width of the eye. The lateral carina of the face cuts the dorsum at one-third the distance to the apex. Median carina faint or wanting. Central tablet of front narrow, almost linear, tricarinate. No callosity behind eye, eye and pronotum widely separated. Pronotum very small, narrow, pustulate, the lateral extensions only represented by a narrow collar, a median but no lateral carinae, without a raised central tablet. Scutellum very small, with a single carina. Elytra brachypterous irregularly reticulate. Pustules on abdominal segments large, prominent and extending only half way to the median line. Rostrum equaling the abdomen in length.
Type of the genus Acinaca lurida sp. nov.

This genus may be distinguished from any other of the group by its simiter-shaped [sic., scimitar] cephalic process.

Acinaca lurida (All photos by Rick Donovall or Kimberley Shropshire, Department of Entomology, University of Delaware)

Acinaca lurida

Acinaca lurida

Acinaca lurida

Acinaca lurida from Ball & Hartzell, 1922

Acinaca lurida from Doering 1955

Online resources:

Acinaca on:
EOL.
FLOW.
Discover Life.
Bugguide.
GBIF.
3I Interactive Keys and Taxonomic Databases (Dmitry Dmitriev)

BOLD (subfamily).

Collecting

Collected infrequently, but sometimes in numbers, by sweeping or inspecting hosts (I understand this species is on the flowers).

Molecular resources: 

As of this writing (1 Oct. 2018), data for this genus is not available on Genbank or on Barcode of life.

Selected references:

Ball, E. D. and A. Hartzell. 1922. A review of the desert leafhoppers of the Orgerini (Rhynchota Fulgoridae). Annals of the Entomological Society of America 15: 137-152.

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.

Doering, K. C. 1955. Some taxonomic and morphological studies of two genera of North American Dictyopharidae. University of Kansas Science Bulletin 37(7): 195-221.

Doering, K. C. 1956. The taxonomic value of the pretarsal structures in the classification of certain Fulgoroidea. University of Kansas Science Bulletin 37: 627-643. pdf [Acinaca studied]

Doering, K. C. and H. H. Darby. 1943. A contribution to the taxonomy of the genus Orgerius in America, north of Mexico (Fulgoridae, Homoptera). Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society 16(2-3): 64-98.

Emeljanov, A. F. 1983. Dictyopharidae from the Cretaceous deposits on the Taymyr Peninsula (Insecta, Homoptera). Paleontologicheskii Zhurnal 3: 79-85 [In Russian; translated in: Paleontological Journal 17(3): 77-82].

Emeljanov, A. F. 2006. Taxonomic changes in American Ogeriinae (Homoptera; Dictyopharidae). Zoosystematica Rossica 15:73-76.

Emeljanov, A. F. 2011. Improved tribal delimitation of the subfamily Dictyopharinae and description of new genera and new species (Homoptera, Fulgoroidea, Dictyopharidae). Ėntomologicheskoe Obozrenie 90(2): 299-328 [In Russian, English Translation, Entomological Review 91(9): 1122-1145].

Metcalf, Z. P. 1946. General Catalogue of the Homoptera. Fascicle IV Fulgoroidea. Part 8 Dictyopharidae. Smith College, Northhampton, Massachusetts.

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.