Subfamily Machaerotinae Stål, 1866

Museums

Regional Maps

• Machaerotida Stål, C. 1858. Neue systematische Eintheilung der Homopteren. Stettiner Entomologische Zeitung 19: 233-234 [233].

  Type genus:

   Machaerota Burmeister, 1835.

Introduction

The tube spittlebugs have nymphs that live inside calcareous tubes attached to their host plants. Hacker (1922) described the emergence of two species in Queensland and Evans (1940) provides details of the nymphal morphology.

Tubes of the Enderleiniini are straight, narrowly conical structures that extend along the smaller branchlets of the host tree. Those of the Hindoloidini are helical, snail-like structures that curl around the twigs. Evans (1940) hypothesises that the tube-forming habits of the Machaerotinae serve to prevent excessive loss of body moisture in organisms that have descended from subterranean ancestors.

Evans (1966) considered that the tube spittlebugs constitute a family in their own right. However, Hamilton (2001) moved them to become a subfamily of the primarily American family Clastopteridae. Cryan & Svenson (2010) present evidence from a molecular study that suggests that Evans' (1966) arrangement was correct but chose not to make any changes to the higher classification of the Cercopoidea.

Diagnosis

Body rather stout; dorsum more or less convex, never strongly flattened. Head usually short, never much broader than anterior end of pronotum; postclypeus swollen at upper portion; gena clearly divided into gena proper and pleurostome by a short longitudinal suture. Pronotum large, usually about 1/2 broader than long, more or less broader than head, very seldom as broad as head (when much broader than head, then lateral angle strongly ampliate but never broadly rounded); anterior pronotal margin between eyes usually strongly arcuate or subangulate, never straight; median carina often present. Scutellum as long as or longer than pronotum, either simply long and acuminate as in Clastopterinae, or strongly elevated and produced caudad into a free spine-like process simulating pronotal process of Membracidae. Tegmen 2–3.5 X as long as wide, distinctly divided into corium, clavus and membrane (here termed corial appendix) by claval furrow. and apical transverse fold; corium usually with simple, rather regularly arranged venation, very seldom reticulate in apical 1/2 or 2/3, but never reticulate only at extreme apex as in certain Cercopidae and never with a costal plica as in certain Clastopterinae; ambient vein always present; corial appendix membranous, veinless; clavus with 1 simple or apically branched longitudinal vein, or with 2 longitudinal veins which are adnate or joined by a short crossvein near middle, but never with 2 simple and independent longitudinal veins as in Cercopidae. Wing with simple, rather uniform venation, longitudinal vein 1 simple; 3 and 5 often apically branched. Hind tibia with or without 1 or 2 lateral spines. Abdomen short, tergites more or less strongly telescoped; abdominal apex distinctly upturned. Male genitalia: aedeagus always simple and bilaterally compressed; periandrium partially developed; paramere short, narrow, slender, slightly expanded apically; subgenital plate thin, flat, continuous with sternite 9; sclerites around anus much smaller than in Cercopidae; pygofer always with a granulose or spiny area at each side below base of anal segment (Maa 1963).

ID Keys

Fletcher, M.J. (2010) Identification Key and Checklists for the Froghoppers and Spittlebugs (Hemiptera: Cercopoidea) of Australia and neighbouring areas. http://www1.dpi.nsw.gov.au/keys/cercopid/index.html [accessed 19.iv.2012]

Diagnosis References

Maa, T.C. 1963. A review of the Machaerotidae (Hemiptera: Cercopoidea). Pacific Insects Monographs 5: 1-166 [6]

General References

Cryan, J.R. & Svenson, G.J. 2010. Family-level relationships of the spittlebugs and froghoppers (Hemiptera: Cicadomorpha: Cercopoidea). Systematic Entomology 35: 393-415

Evans, J.W. 1940. Tube-building cercopids (Homoptera, Machaerotidae). Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia 64(1): 70-75

Evans, J.W. 1966. The leafhoppers and froghoppers of Australia and New Zealand. Memoirs of the Australian Museum 12: 1-347 [325]

Hacker, H. 1922. On the emergence of two tube-dwelling homopterous insects. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 7(4): 280-282

Hamilton, K.G.A. 2001. A new family of froghoppers from the American tropics (Hemiptera: Cercopoidea: Epipygidae). Biodiversity 2(3): 15-22 [18]

History of changes