Genus Poblicia Stal, 1866

Subtribe Poiocerina Haupt, 1929

Genus Poblicia Stal, 1866: 138 (key).

Type species (in original combination): Poeocera misella Stål, 1863: 239. (Designation by Van Duzee 1916: 78).

Synonyms

None.

Distribution

Mainly southern US and Mexico, south to Panama.

Recognized species

This genus has 3 species, 2 of which gets occur in the U.S. [Metcalf 1947: 61]. Nast (1951: 270) places some of these species in Crepusia Stål, 1866, but this placement seems unlikely, so I have maintained those species in Poblicia until the genus-level issues in the tribe can be more fully addressed.

Poblicia fuliginosa (Olivier, 1791) – USA: AZ, GA, IL, KS, LA, MD, MO, MT, MS, NC, NM, OH, OK, SC, TX; Mexico (Chihuahua, Coahuila, Morelos, Nuevo León) [iNaturalist]
= Fulgora fuliginosa Olivier, 1791: 574.
= Poblicia fuliginosa (Olivier, 1791); comb. by Van Duzee (1917: 719)
= Poblicia thanatophana Kirkaldy, 1907: 61;  synonym by to Ball (1933)
= Poiocera cribrata Gerstaecker, 1860: 227; synonym of Poiocera venosa Walker, 1851 by Da Costa Lima (1935: 508)
= Poiocera venosa Walker, 1851: 298 (nec. Matsumura) synonym of Crepusia fuliginosa (Olivier, 1791) by Nast (1951: 270).
= Crepusia fuliginosa (Olivier, 1791); comb. by Nast (1951: 270). [Nast excluded this species from Poblicia, but this has not been subsequently followed]

Poblicia misella (Stål, 1863: 239) [Distant 1887: 31] – Mexico (Oaxaca)
= Poeocera misella Stål, 1863: 239.
= Poblicia misella (Stål, 1863), comb. by Distant 1887: 31.

Poblicia texana Oman, 1936 – USA: AR,  GA, MS, NC, SC, TN, TX; Mexico (Guanajuato (iNat1, iNat2)) [iNaturalist] [Online records – not expected; most specimens found in September and October]

{Flow includes the following species, but it was restored to Scaralis by Porion 1994}

Scaralis spectabilis (Walker, 1858) – Panama, Brazil (Para)
= Poiocera spectabilis Walker, 1858: 55.
= Scaralis spectabilis (Walker, 1858); comb. by Distant (1887: 36)
= Poblicia spectabilis (Walker, 1858); comb. restored by Metcalf (1938: 353)
= Scaralis spectabilis Walker, 1858; comb. restored by Porion 1994

Economic Importance

Limited.

Plant associations

Poblicia fuliginosa – Rhus spp., esp. Rhus copallinum L. (winged sumac, Anacardiaceae) (in the east); Baccharis sarothroides A. Gray (Asteraceae), Brickellia (Asteraceae) (in the southwest).  Some specimens were taken of red maple Acer rubrum, in Bladen Co., NC; the red maple was coppice in a power line right-of-way, and may not have been a usual host; this species was also found on Ambrosia trifida,  giant ragweed, in Maryland (I suspect this was an incidental plant association)

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

Recognition

Head not strongly produced, head with eyes equal or broader than pronotum, but not exceeding the width of closed forewings; flange on posterior margin of the head behind eye not obscuring lateral edge of pronotum; anterior abdominal tergites black, caudal tergites red in U.S. species.

Oman (1936) writes that P. texana is  “Related to fuliginosa, and resembling pale specimens of that species in general color, but larger, with a longer head, and with the fore femora not at all expanded distally. Measurements of male: Length of body, 13 mm. ; length, with wings, 18.5 mm. ; expanse, 35 mm. ; greatest width of pronotum, 5 mm” [update: Poblicia texana specimens have been reported in the east on Bugguide]

Subsequently, in the same paper Oman (1936) states [comments in [brackets]

This species may be easily separated from both fuliginosa and constellata [Poiocera constellata Walker, 1858, a jr syn of  Alaruasa lepida (Spinola, 1839)] by the transverse carinae on the front and the quadrangular areas at each end of the transverse sulcus, as well as by the genital characters mentioned. The color is quite distinctive but may be expected to vary considerably. In certain structural features, such as the carinate clypeus and front, texana approaches the genus Domita Stal [Jamaicastes Kirkaldy, 1900], but Domita, based on the insular forms basistella Walk[er] [Jamaicastes basistella], and constellata Guer. …, has the fore wings much more finely reticulated, the head narrower, and the crown extending upward in a flange-like projection above each eye laterally. Poblicia and Domita are very closely related …”

Photos by Tyler Hagerty (UDEL Dept. Entomology)

Poblicia fuliginosa eggs on Winged sumac

Poblicia fuliginosa on Winged sumac (Rhus copallinum) in Bladen Co., NC; Sep. 2017

Online resources

FLOW.
Bugguide.
iNaturalist.
EOL.
Maryland Diversity Project.
Discover life.
Hoppers of North Carolina.
BOLD.
GenBank.

Collecting

Found by inspecting hosts.  Poblicia fuliginosa can sometimes be locally common. They don’t seem to come to light.

Molecular resources

Genbank has several genes for Poblicia fuliginosa; Barcode of life has data for P. fuliginosa and P. texana.

Selected references

Ball, E. D. 1933. Notes on the Fulgoridae with some new species. Psyche 40: 145-150.

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.

Bartlett, C. R., E. R. Adams and A. T. Gonzon, Jr. 2011. Planthoppers of Delaware (Hemiptera, Fulgoroidea), excluding Delphacidae, with species incidence from adjacent States. ZooKeys 83: 1-42.

Da Costa Lima, A. M. 1935. Catalogo das especies americanas de Laternaridae (Homoptera : Fulgoroidea). Memorias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz. Rio de Janeiro 30: 481-517.

Distant, W. L. 1887.  Rhynchota: Homoptera. Biologia Centrali-Americana; contributions to the knowledge of the fauna and flora of Mexico and Central America 1: 25-32, 33-40. [see p. 31, e.g.]

Dozier, H. L. 1928a [dated 1922 or 1926]. The Fulgoridae or planthoppers of Mississippi, including those of possible occurrence. Technical Bulletin of the Mississippi Agricultural Experiment Station 14: 1-152.

Dunn, G. A. 1996. Insects of the Great Lakes Region. University of Michigan. 236 pp. [Poblicia fuliginosa noted]