[Back to North American Kinnaridae]

Family Kinnaridae Muir, 1925

Subfamily Kinnarinae Muir, 1925

Tribe Oeclidiini Emeljanov, 2006

Genus Oeclidius Van Duzee, 1914: 40.

Type species: Oeclidius nanus Van Duzee, 1914: 40.

Synonyms

• Paroeclidius Myers, 1928 (Type species Paroeclidius luizi Myers, 1928); new status (subgenus) by Fennah 1980: 682, 695.

The subgenus appears to be monotypic.

Distribution

Southwestern USA and Mesoamerica (to northern South America).

Recognized species

There are 6 species reported north of Mexico, 16 additional species in Mesoamerica and the Caribbean, and 2 fossil species.

Oeclideus in the Metcalf catalog – Metcalf 1945: 247.

Nearctic species (north of Mexico)

Oeclidius carolus Ball, 1934a: 79 – USA: AZ
Oeclidius fraternus Van Duzee, 1923: 190 – USA: AZ, CA, UT; Mexico (Baja California Sur, Sonora)
Oeclidius nanus Van Duzee, 1914: 40 – USA: AZ, CA, NM, NV, UT; CAN: BC; Mexico (Baja California, Baja California Sur, Isla Tortuga, Isla Cerralvo [Jacques Cousteau], Isla San Lorenzo)
= Oeclidius brickellus Ball, 1934a: 77; syn. by Bartlett et al. 2014: 173.
Oeclidius nimbus Ball, 1934a: 79 – USA: AZ
Oeclidius transversus Ball, 1934a: 78 – USA: AZ, CA (the type specimens are from Arizona)

Neotropical species (list adopted from FLOW)

1. Oeclidius aboraca Fennah, 1980: 688 – Jamaica
2. Oeclidius antricola Fennah, 1980: 686 – Jamaica
3. Oeclidius browni† Bourgoin & Lefebvre, 2002 – Dominican Republic
4. Oeclidius conopa Fennah, 1980: 693 – Haiti
5. Oeclidius fulgidus (Van Duzee, 1907: 34) – Jamaica
6. Oeclidius fuscosus (Van Duzee, 1907: 34) – Jamaica
7. Oeclidius hades Fennah, 1973: 442 – Mexico (San Luis Potosi)
8. Oeclidius hanabanillae Myers, 1928: 19 – Cuba
9. Oeclidius koebelei Muir, 1934: 581 – Mexico
10. Oeclidius (Paroeclidius) luizi (Myers, 1928: 20) – Cuba
11. Oeclidius minos Fennah, 1980: 685 – Jamaica
12. Oeclidius parallelus Muir, 1934: 580 – Brazil
13. Oeclidius pelagon Fennah, 1980: 690 – Cuba
14. Oeclidius persephone Fennah, 1980: 683 – Jamaica
15. Oeclidius princeps Fennah, 1980: 691 – Haiti
16. Oeclidius salaco† Emeljanov & Shcherbakov, 2000 – Dominican Republic
17. Oeclidius tenellus (Fowler, 1904: 89) – Mexico
18. Oeclidius trinitatis Myers, 1928: 18 – Cuba

Fossil species

1. Oeclidius browni† Bourgoin & Lefebvre, 2002 (fossil)
2. Oeclidius salaco† Emeljanov & Shcherbakov, 2000 (fossil)

Economic Importance

Limited.

Plant associations

• Oeclidius nanas (as brickellus) – Trixis californica Kellogg (Asteraceae; American threefold).
• Oeclidius nanus – Chrysothamnus sp. (Asterales, Asteraceae)(FLOW)
• Oeclidius sp. – Hymenoclea salsola Torr. & A. Gray (Asteraceae, burrobrush).
• Oeclidius luizi – Chamissoa altissima (Jacq.) Kunth (Amaranthaceae, false chaff flower).

Hosts from Myers (1928), Wilson et al. 1994 and FLOW; plant names from USDA PLANTS or Tropicos.

Recognition

There is only one described genus of Kinnaridae north of Mexico.  They resemble small cixiids (perhaps especially Oecleus) with the vertex of the head narrow and trough-like; frons very narrow near top of head, widening toward frontoclypeal suture with a median ocellus (just above frontoclypeal suture, a feature shared with Cixiidae but no other planthoppers north of Mexico).  Unlike Cixiidae, females have the ovipositor ‘reduced’ instead of strongly projecting and ‘orthopteroid’.  The hallmark feature of the family is that abdominal tergites 7-9 are ‘chevron-shaped’.

Oeclidius nanus (photographs by Kimberley Shropshire, University of Delaware)

Online resources

Oeclidius on…
EOL
FLOW
Discover Life
GBIF
Bugguide (oddly, images of a nymph, from the floor of a cave)
iNaturalist.
BOLD.
GenBank.

Collecting

Adults are taken by sweeping or beating; from the known host plants (above, target composites).

Molecular resources

As of this writing, Genbank has several genes for Oeclidius sp., and Barcode of life has data for 3 Oeclideus species (Oeclidius brickellus, O. nanus).

Selected references

Ball, E. D. 1934. The genus Oeclidius Van Duzee (Homoptera-Fulgoridae). Pan-Pacific Entomologist 10(2): 77-80.

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.

Bourgoin, T. 1993. Cladistic analysis of the Meenoplidae–Kinnaridae genera: the Kinnaridae, a paraphyletic family (Hemiptera, Fulgoromorpha). Pp. 22-24. In: S. Drosopoulos, P.V. Petrakis, M.F. Claridge, and P.W.F. de Vrijer, (eds.). Proceedings of the 8th Auchenorrhyncha Congress, Delphi, Greece, 9–13 August 1993.

Bourgoin T. and F. Lefebvre. 2002. A new fossil Kinnaridae from Dominican amber (Hemiptera: Fulgoromorpha). Annales Zoologici Warszawa 52(4): 601-603.

Emeljanov, A. F. 1984. To the knowledge of the families Kinnaridae and Meenoplidae (Homoptera, Fulgoroidea). Entomologicheskoe Obozrenie 63(3): 468-483. [Russian] [Translated to English. 1985. Entomological Review, 64(1): 49-65.]

Emeljanov, A. F. 2006. Subdivision of the family Kinnaridae into subfamilies and tribes (Homoptera, Fulgoroida). Zoosystematica Rossica 15: 77-78.

Bourgoin, T. and V. Deiss. 1994. Sensory plate organs of the antenna in the Meenoplidae-Kinnaridae group (Hemiptera : Fulgoromorpha). International Journal of Insect Morphology and Embryology 23(2): 159-168.

Emeljanov A. F. and D. E. Shcherbakov. 2000. Kinnaridae and Derbidae (Homoptera, Fulgoroidea) from the Dominican amber. Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie Monatshefte 7: 438-448.

Fennah, R. G. 1945. Tropiduchidae and Kinnaridae from the Greater Antilles (Homoptera: Fulgoroidea). Psyche 52: 119-138.

Fennah, R. G. 1973. Three new cavernicolous species of Fulgoroidea (Homoptera) from Mexico and Western Australia. Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 86(38): 439-446.

Fennah, R. G. 1980. New and little known Neotropical Kinnaridae (Homoptera: Fulgoroidea). Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 93(3): 674-696.

Fowler, W. W. 1904. Order Rhynchota. Suborder Hemiptera-Homoptera. (Continued). Biologia Centrali-Americana 1: 85-124.

Liang, A. P. and G. M. Jiang. 2003. Wax-exuding cuticular pores in Oeclidius nanus Van Duzee (Hemiptera: Fulgoromorpha: Kinnaridae). Journal of Entomological Science 38(2): 247-253.

Kuznetsova, V. G. and Q. Maryanska-Nadachowska. 2006. The male reproductive organs and karyotype of Oeclidius pr. nanus Van Duzee: first record for the family Kinnaridae (Homoptera: Fulgoroidea). Russian Entomological Journal 15(3): 281-286.

Metcalf, Z. P. 1945. General catalogue of the Hemiptera. Fasc. IV. Fulgoroidea, Parts 4. Derbidae, 5. Achilixiidae, 6. Meenoplidae, and 7. Kinnaridae, Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts. 252 pp.

Muir, F. A. G. 1925. On the genera of Cixiidae, Meenoplidae and Kinnaridae. Pan-Pacific Entomologist. San Francisco 1: 156-163 [158].

Muir, F. A. G. 1934. New and little-known Fulgoroidea (Homoptera). Annals and Magazine of Natural History (Ser. 10) 14: 561-586.

Myers, J. G. 1928. Notes on Cuban fulgoroid Homoptera. Studies on Cuban Insects 1928: 11-31

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

Van Duzee, E. P. 1907. Notes on Jamaican Hemiptera: A report on a collection of Hemiptera made on the Island of Jamaica in the spring of 1906. Bulletin of the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences 8(5): 3-79.

Van Duzee, E. P. 1914. A preliminary list of Hemiptera of San Diego County, California. Transactions of the San Diego Society of Natural History 2: 1-57.

Van Duzee, E. P. 1923. Expedition of the California Academy of Sciences to the Gulf of California in 1921 – The Hemiptera (True Bugs, etc.). Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences (Ser. 4) 12: 123-200.