Tribe Ledrini Kirkaldy, 1906

Museums

Regional Maps

• Ledrinae Kirkaldy, G.W. 1906. Leafhoppers and their natural enemies. Bulletin of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association Experimental Station Entomological Series 1(9): 271-479 [365].

  Type genus:

   Ledra Fabricius, 1803.

Introduction

Metcalf (1962) credited this tribe to Distant (1907) but Distant, who used the term Ledrinaria for the group, based it on Kirkaldy's (1906) recognition of the subfamily Ledrinae as being separate from the Stenocotinae within the Jassidae. Kirkaldy (1906) provided a comparative differentiation between the two groups. Jones & Deitz (2009) moved the Stenocotini to the Tartessinae leaving the Ledrini and the Rubrini as the only Australian tribes of Ledrinae. The Ledrini is distributed in the Old World while the Australian Ledrini mainly comprise endemic genera, many monotypic, and mostly associated with the tree genus Eucalyptus L'Héretier (Myrtaceae) although Ledropsis froggatti Distant is found on Ceratopetalum Sm. (Cunoniaceae) and Leptospermum Forst. & Forst. (Myrtaceae).

Diagnosis

Characterized by the ocelli being placed on the disk of the vertex; the subfoliaceous or foliaceous posterior tibiae which are tricarinate, and armed anteriorly with strong spines; and the flat (often concave beneath), foliaceous head. All the forms seem to be arboreal (Kirkaldy 1906).

Dorsum coarsely pitted or knobbed. Head spatulate and lamellate or foliaceous anterolaterally. Crown uneven with shallow ridges or knobs. Face generally concave. Episternum of pronotum entirely exposed, large, quadrate and situated ventrally, or collar-like and wrapping around laterally onto pronotum. Forewings punctate, venation reticulate in apical two-thirds. Mesothoracic tibia row II apex with long triangular patch of scalelike setae sometimes arranged in row perpendicular to axis of leg. Male genitalia: Pygofer with or without basidistal processes, with or without inner dorsomedial subapical processes; plates as long as or longer than pygofer, originating from pygofer dorsoventrally depressed, then often flexing along their axes to become laterally compressed and slightly cuplike apically; segment X (anal tube) usually with ventral lobe; aedeagus highly variable, with or without subapical and apical processes; paraphyses sometimes present. Female genitalia: Valvulae II long and moderately slender, usually well-sclerotized, usually with a primary subapical dorsal tooth situated closer to apex than to midpoint, often with a secondary subapical dorsal tooth situated between primary tooth and apex, and a subapical dorsal notch occurring immediately posterad of second tooth; supranumerary teeth generally absent; median perpendicular keel sometimes present (Jones & Deitz 2009).

General References

Distant, W.L. 1907. Contributions to a knowledge of the Ledrinae. Annales de la Société Entomologique de Belgique (Comptes-rendus) 51: 185-197 [185]

Jones, J.R. & Deitz, L.L. 2009. Phylogeny and systematics of the leafhopper subfamily Ledrinae (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae). Zootaxa (2186): 1–120 [31]

Kirkaldy, G.W. 1906. Leafhoppers and their natural enemies. Bulletin of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association Experimental Station Entomological Series 1(9): 271-479 [365]

Metcalf, Z.P. 1962. General Catalogue of the Homoptera. Fascicle VI, Cicadelloidea. Part 4, Ledridae. Raleigh N.C. : North Carolina State College 147 pp. [7]

Wang, X., Li, D., Wang, J., Yang, M., Li, Y, Li, Z., Dietrich, C.H. & Dai, R. 2024. Molecular phylogeny of the leafhopper tribe Ledrini (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae) with a reclassification and key to genera. Insect Systematics and Diversity 8(4): 1-22

History of changes