Tribe Macropsini Evans, 1935

Toropsis bella (Evans), one of our more colourful macropsines.

© Copyright Murray Fletcher, Orange Agricultural Institute.

Museums

Regional Maps

• Macropsini Evans, J.W. 1936. The Bythoscopidae of Australia (Homoptera: Jassoidea). Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania 1935: 61-83 [63].

  Type genus:

   Macropsis Lewis, 1836.

Introduction

Macropsines are small and fairly distinctive with an arched pronotum giving them a hunched appearance, the appendix of the tegmen is poorly developed and the ocelli are on the face rather than marginal or dorsal. The Macropsinae of Australia were the subject of a Ph.D. project at La Trobe University, Melbourne, and publications from that are under preparation. One of the results of this research will be to elucidate whether the Holarctic genus Macropsis Lewis genuinely occurs here. 48 species are currently recorded in Australia of which 22 remain in Macropsis, 10 are in Toropsis Hamilton and six are in Pediopsis Burmeister. The remainder are either in endemic genera or are the sole Australian representative of those genera. The most recent review of the world Macropsinae was by Hamilton (1980) who created a number of new genera for the reception of species from Macropsis into which Evans (1966) had placed most of the Australian macropsine fauna. Unfortunately, Hamilton (1980) regarded 20 of the species recognised by Evans (1966) as incertae sedis and this covered almost half of the described fauna. The higher classification of the Cicadellidae has been the subject of numerous recent papers. Dietrich et al. (2017) regarded the Macropsinae to be a tribe of a subfamily which also included the Eurymelini and the Idiocerini. They proposed that the name of the subfamily should be Eurymelinae based on priority of the nominal genera. However, this name is generally poorly known since the Eurymelini are Australasian while the Idiocerini and Macrosini and cosmopolitan groups. Semeraro et al. (2021) used the name Idiocerinae for the subfamily but accepted the placement of the Eurymelini, Macropsini and Idiocerini together as tribes of the Idiocerinae.

Diagnosis

Macrosids may be readily recognised by the structure of the face of their heads of which the principal distinguishing features are the anterior position of the antennae and the situation of the ocelli on the face, close to the apices of the epicranial suture. The lora are usually swollen, the maxillary plates narrow and the impressions of the dilator muscles of the sucking pump visible in the form of compact sausage-shaped markings. The hind tibiae are armed with rows of regular short, strong spines; the tegmina usually have normal venation and, in the male genitalia, both the parameres and subgenital plates are long and narrow (Evans 1966).

ID Keys

Fletcher, M.J. (2009 and updates). Key to the leafhoppers and treehoppers of Australia and neighbouring areas (Hemiptera: Auchenorrhyncha). http://www1.dpi.nsw.gov.au/keys/leafhop/index.html [accessed: 22.iii.2012]

Diagnosis References

Evans, J.W. 1966. The leafhoppers and froghoppers of Australia and New Zealand. Memoirs of the Australian Museum 12: 1-347 [156–157]

General References

Evans, J.W. 1966. The leafhoppers and froghoppers of Australia and New Zealand. Memoirs of the Australian Museum 12: 1-347 [156–168]

Hamilton, K.G.A. 1980. Contributions to the study of the world Macropsini (Rhynchota: Homoptera: Cicadellidae). The Canadian Entomologist 112: 875-932

History of changes