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[Back to North American Tropiduchidae]
Contents
Family Tropiduchidae Stål, 1866
Subfamily Tambiniinae Kirkaldy, 1907
Tribe Remosini Fennah, 1982
Genus Neurotmeta Guérin-Méneville, 1856
Type species (in original combination): Fulgora sponsa Guérin-Méneville, 1856.
Synonyms
None.
Note: Tangia was subsumed under Neurotmeta Guérin-Méneville by Van Duzee 1917: 739; removed from synonymy by Fennah 1965: 100.
Distribution
The Caribbean.
Recognized species
There is a single species currently in the genus:
Neurotmeta sponsa (Guérin-Méneville, 1856) – Cuba, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Jamaica (reported in error: USA: FL)
- Fulgora (Pseudophana?) sponsa Guérin-Méneville, 1856: 180.
- Tangiasponsa (Guérin-Méneville, 1856); comb. by Uhler 1884: 231.
- Neurotmeta sponsa (Guérin-Méneville, 1856); comb. by Melichar 1912: 174, 217.
Economic Importance
Limited.
Plant associations
Neurotmeta sponsa – Psidium guajava L. (Guava, Myrtaceae), Coffea arabica L. (coffee, Rubiaceae)
Hosts from Wilson et al. (1994); plant names from USDA PLANTS or Tropicos.
Recognition
Not verified from the U.S., although potentially present in southern Florida. Could easily be mistaken for Tangia.
Features: median carina of frons present; lateral fields of pronotum about as wide as median fields; vertex longer than broad (vs. Tangia breviceps).
Fennah (1965) gives these features to contrast Neurotmeta with Tangia:
Neurotmeta has lateral margins of frons not meeting lateral margins of vertex; median carina of vertex widely forked basally (vs. minutely forked at base in Tangia), distinctly before level of anterior margin of eyes; M in forewings 3-branched at level of nodal line (2-branched in Tangia); primary forks of M and CuA and union of claval veins lying on an oblique straight line; 22 veins at apical margin (vs. 15-18 in Tangia); wings with M 3-branched (vs. 2-branched in Tangia).
- Lateral margins of frons not meeting lateral margins of vertex; median carina of vertex widely forked basally, distinctly before level of anterior margin of eyes; M in tegmina three-branched at level of the nodal line; primary forks of M and CUI and union of claval veins lying on an oblique straight line; 22 veins at apical margin; wings with M three-branched … Neurotmeta Guerin-Meneville
1.’ Lateral margins of frons meeting lateral margins of vertex; median carina of vertex only minutely forked at base, this fork basad of level of anterior margin of eyes; M in tegmina two-branched at level of nodal line; primary forks of M and CUI and union of claval veins not lying on a straight line, the last two at same level and the first distad; 15-18 veins at apical margin; wings with M two-branched … Tangia Stal
Neurotmeta sponsa from Cuba
Neurotmeta is not on Bugguide at present.
Collecting
Tropiduchids are most often at lights, but sometimes also beating.
Molecular resources
As of this writing (checked 29 July. 2021), data for Tangia viridis (as Neurotmeta) is available on GenBank and Barcode of life.
Selected references
Fennah, R. G. 1945. Tropiduchidae and Kinnaridae from the Greater Antilles (Homoptera: Fulgoroidea). Psyche 52: 119-138.
Fennah, R. G. 1965. New Species of Fulgoroidea (Homoptera) from the West Indies. Transactions of the Royal Entomological Society of London 117(4): 95-126.
Fennah, R. G. 1971. Fulgoroidea from the Cayman Islands and adjacent Areas. Journal of Natural History 5: 299-342.
Guérin-Méneville, F. E. 1856. Segunda, Seccion. Homopterous. in Crustaceos, aragnides, e insectos. Pp. 178-182. In: Ramon de la Sagra D. Historia fisica politica y natural de la Isla de Cuba. Segunda Parte Historia Natural, 7.
Melichar, L. 1912a. Monographie der Dictyophorinen (Homoptera). Abhandlungen der K. K. Zoologisch-botanischen Gesellschaft in Wien. 7 (1):1-221. [Transfer ofTangia sponsa to Neurotmeta.]
Melichar. L. 1914f. Monographie der Tropiduchinen (Homoptera). Verhandlungen des Naturforschenden Vereines in Brünn 1914:1-145.
Metcalf, Z. P. 1954. General Catalogue of the Hemiptera. Fascicle IV, Fulgoroidea, Part 11 Tropiduchidae. North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina.
Metcalf, Z. P. and S. C. Bruner. 1930. Cuban Fulgorina. 1. The families Tropiduchidae and Acanaloniidae. Psyche 37:395-424.
O’Brien, L. B. 1992. The Tropiduchidae of the United States (Homoptera: Fulgoroidea). Annals of the Entomological Society of America 85(2): 121-126.
Stål, C. 1859. Hemiptera. Species novas descripsit. Fregatten Eugenies Resa. Arkiv for Zoologi 4: 219-298.
Van Duzee, E. P. 1917. Catalogue of the Hemiptera of America North of Mexico (excepting the Aphididae, Coccidae and Aleurodidae). University of California Publications, Technical Bulletins, vol. 2. University of California Press, Berkeley, pp. i-xiv, 1-902.
Walker, F. 1851. List of the specimens of Homopterous Insects in the collection of the British Museum. British Museum, London. 2: 261-636.
Wilson, S. W. and J. E. McPherson. 1980. The distribution of the Fulgoroidea of the Eastern United States (Homoptera). Transactions of the Illinois State Academy of Science 73(4): 7-20.
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.
Wolcott, G. N. 1950. The insects of Puerto Rico. [dated 1948]. Journal of Agriculture of the University of Puerto Rico 32(1): 1-224.
