Family DERBIDAE Spinola, 1839

Museums

Regional Maps

• Derboides Spinola, M. 1839. Essai sur les Fulgorelles, sous-tribu de la tribu des Cicadaires, ordre des Ryngotes. Annales de la Société Entomologique de France 8: 133-337 [204].

  Type genus:

   Derbe Fabricius, 1803.

Introduction

The Family Derbidae has been very poorly studied in Australia despite the fact that it is well represented, particularly in the tropical North. Recent work in Papua New Guinea has demonstrated that there is a rich fauna there too, also poorly documented. Derbids are often delightfully delicate insects usually associated with rainforest or wet sclerophyll forests. Anecdotal evidence indicates that nymphs may feed on fungal hyphae as do the nymphs of Achilidae and Cixiidae although adults of all three families are apparently phloem feeding. The classification used here follows that of Emeljanov (1995).

Diagnosis

The short (as wide as long) apical segment of the rostrum is diagnostic for the family. Some derbid species have the outer claval vein lightly but distinctly granulated and may therefore be mistaken for Meenoplidae which have heavy granulations on this claval vein but they can always be distinguished as derbids by the apical segment of the rostrum.

ID Keys

Fletcher, M.J. (1999) Identification key and checklists for the Planthoppers of Australia and New Zealand (Superfamily Fulgoroidea) https://idtools.dpi.nsw.gov.au/keys/fulgor/index.html

General References

Emeljanov, A.F. 1995. [On the system and phylogeny of the Family Derbidae (Homoptera, Cicadina)]. Entomologicheskoe Obozrenie (English translation as Entomological Reviews) 73(4): 783–811 [in Russian]

History of changes