Genus Tangia Stål, 1859

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[Back to North American Tropiduchidae]

Family Tropiduchidae Kirkaldy, 1907

Subfamily Tambiniinae Kirkaldy, 1907

Tribe Tangiini Melichar, 1914

Genus Tangia Stål, 1859

(Nec Chan 1907 (Pisces: Lutjanidae))

Type species (in original combination): Monopsis viridis Walker, 1851.

Synonyms

This genus was subsumed under Neurotmeta Guérin-Méneville, 1856 (type species Fulgora sponsa Guérin-Méneville, 1856) by Van Duzee 1917: 739; removed from synonymy by Fennah 1965: 100.

Distribution

Florida and the Caribbean.

Recognized species

There are 7 species currently in the genus:
Tangia bipatriata (Fennah 1945: 147) – Nevis, St. Kitts
Tangia breviceps (Metcalf & Bruner, 1930) – USA: FL; Cuba
= Neurotmeta breviceps Metcalf & Bruner, 1930: 398.
= Tangia breviceps (Metcalf & Bruner, 1930); comb. by O’Brien 1992: 122.
Tangia dominicana (Fennah 1945: 148) – Dominica
Tangia literalis (Fennah 1945: 148) – Antigua
Tangia oreas (Fennah 1945: 147) – Montserrat
Tangia plistoanax Fennah 1971: 328 – Cayman Islands (Grand Cayman)
Tangia viridis (Walker 1851: 325) – Puerto Rico, St. Thomas

Economic Importance

Limited.

Plant associations

• Tangia bipatriata – Coccoloba uvifera (L.) L. (seagrape, Polygonaceae)
• Tangia breviceps – Coccoloba uvifera (L.) L. (seagrape, Polygonaceae)
• Tangia literalis – polyphagous;  Caesalpinia sp. (Fabales, Fabaceae); Coccoloba uvifera (L.) L. (Fennah, 1945)
• Tangia viridis – Citrus (Rutaceae); Croton humilis l. (pepperbush, Euphorbiaceae), Suiana maritima L. (bay cedar, Surianaceae), Coccoloba uvifera (L.) L. (seagrape, Polygonaceae)

Hosts from FLOW, Fennah 1945, Wilson et al. (1994); plant names from USDA PLANTS or Tropicos. See also Wheeler 1942: 124. (genus on seagrape associated with ants)

Recognition

The only green tropiduchid verified in the US; however, other species might be possible (particularly in southern Florida) particularly given past confusion.

Features: median carina of frons present; lateral fields of pronotum about as wide as median fields; vertex broader than long (in breviceps, the only US species).

Fennah (1965) gives these features to contrast Neurotmeta with Tangia:

(vs. Neurotmeta) Tangia has 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 (vs. forked basally, distinctly before level of anterior margin of eyes); M in forewing 2-branched at level of nodal line (vs. 3 branched); primary forks of M and CuA and union of claval veins not lying on a straight line, the last at same level and the first distad; 15-18 veins at apical margin (vs. 22); wings with M 2-branched (vs. 3 branched)

Online resources

BOLD (for tribe)
Tangia is not on Bugguide at present (link to family in Bugguide).
KunzWeb gallery (for family)
FLOW.
Cook Island Biodiversity. (Link actually to Kallitaxila granulata, I just wanted to include this link)

Collecting

Most often at lights, but sometimes also beating. Tangia brevifrons is on sea grape.

Molecular resources

As of this writing, data for Tangia viridis is available on Genbank, and this genus is not available on Barcode of life.

Selected references

Anderson, W. D., P.K. Talwar, and G. D. Johnson. 1977. A replacement name for Tangia Chan (Pisces: Perciformes: Lutjanidae) with redescriptions of the genus and type-species. Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington. 89: 509-518.

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.

Caldwell, J. S. and L. F. Martorell. 1951 [dated 1950]. Review of the Auchenorynchous [sic] Homoptera of Puerto Rico. Part II. The Fulgoroidea except Kinnaridae. Journal of Agriculture of the University of Puerto Rico 34(2): 133-269.

Chan, W. L. 1970. A new genus and two new species of commercial snappers from Hong Kong. Hong Kong Fisheries Bulletin No. 1: 19-38.

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. (see p. 85)

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

Fennah, R. G. 1949. On a small collection of Fulgoroidea (Homoptera) from the Virgin Islands. Psyche 56(2): 51-65.

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.

Henshaw, S. 1903b. The Hemiptera described by Phillip Reese Uhler. IV. Psyche 10:224-238. (see p. 229)

Kirkaldy, G. W. 1907. Leafhoppers supplement. (Hemiptera). Bulletin. Hawaiian Sugar Planters’ Association Experiment Station. Division of Entomology 3: 1-186.

Melichar, L. 1914f [1915d]. Monographie der Tropiduchinen (Homoptera). Verhandlungen des Naturforschenden Vereines in Brünn 53: 1-145 [1915d reprint 53: 82-226, see p. 181].

Metcalf, Z. P. 1954. General Catalogue of the Hemiptera. Fascicle IV, Fulgoroidea, Part 11 Tropiduchidae. North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina. (P. 78 as syn. of Neurotmeta)

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.

Osborn, H. 1929. Notes on Porto Rican Homoptera. The Journal of the Department of Agriculture of Puerto Rico 13: 81-112.

Stål, C. 1859a. Novae quaedam Fulgorinorum formae speciesque insigniores. Berliner Entomologische Zeitschrift 3: 313-327.

Stål, C. 1866a. Hemiptera Homoptera Latr. Hemiptera Africana vol. 3-4. Officina Norstedtiana, Stockholm, Sweden. 200 + 276 pp. (see p. 186)

Uhler, P. R. 1895a. An enumeration of the Hemiptera-Homoptera of the Island of St. Vincent, W. I. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1895: 55–84. (see p. 59)

Uhler, P. R. 1901a. Some new genera and species of North American Hemiptera. Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington 4:507-515.(Comparative note p. 512)

Van Duzee, E. P. 1916a. Check list of Hemiptera (excepting the Aphididae, Aleurodidae and Coccidae) of America North of Mexico. New York Entomological Society, New York. 111 pp.  (see p. 80)

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. (e.g., p. 729)

Walker, F. 1851. List of the specimens of Homopterous Insects in the collection of the British Museum. British Museum, London. 2: 261-636.

Wheeler, W. M. 1942. Studies of Neotropical ant-plants and their ants. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College 90(1): 1-262 + 57 plates [see p. 124]

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.