Family MEENOPLIDAE Fieber, 1872

Museums

Regional Maps

• Meenoplidae Fieber, F.X. 1872. Katalog der europäischen Cicadinen, nach Originalien mit Benützung der neuesten Literatur. Wien. 19 pp. [3].

  Type genus:

   Meenoplus Fieber, 1866.

Introduction

The meenoplids are small, dark planthoppers with narrow tegmina which are heavily granulated along the outer claval vein. Little is known of their biology although recent work has identified a significant number of Meenoplidae living in caves and showing varying degrees of adaptation for cavernicolous life. In Australia, there are two species of Nisia Melichar and a dozen species of Phaconeura Kirkaldy, half of which are cavernicolous either in Queensland or in Western Australia. One species, P. froggatti is found in the southern parts of the continent, in New South Wales and Victoria.

Diagnosis

The Australian Meenoplidae can be differentiated from all other Australian fulgoroids by the granulations along the outer claval vein combined with the apical segment of the rostrum being much longer than wide. Some Derbidae also have granulated claval veins but the apical segment of the derbid rostrum is short, about as long as it is wide.

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

History of changes