Family RICANIIDAE Amyot & Serville, 1843

Museums

Regional Maps

• Ricanides Amyot, C.J.B. & Audinet-Serville, J.G. 1843. Histoire Naturelle des Insects. Hémiptères. Paris : Librairie Encyclopédique de Roret, Rue Hautefeuille 10 B13 676 pp. [527].

  Type genus:

   Ricania Germar, 1818.

Introduction

The Australian Ricaniidae were reviewed by Fletcher (2008) who also provided a key to genera. This has been converted into an electronic format at http://www1.dpi.nsw.gov.au/keys/fulgor/ricaniidae/ric00.htm. Fletcher (2008) noted that a number of Australian species currently placed in the genera Ricania Germar, Euricania Melichar and Ricanoptera Melichar may be moved elsewhere when those primarily non-Austrailan genera were revised. The Australian fauna comprises a range of forms from delicate lacy-winged species of Armacia Stål, Plestia Stål and Epithalamium Kirkaldy to moth-like species of Scolypopa Stål and Aprivesa Melichar. Scolypopa australis (Walker) is known as the Passionvine Hopper and has become a pest of kiwifruit orchards in New Zealand where high numbers of nymphs and adults produce vast quantities of honeydew which encourages the growth of sooty moulds on developing fruit. The species is well known in temperate eastern Australia where it can also build up into large populations in gardens and cause sooty mould growth.

Excluded Taxa

Misidentifications

Ricaniidae: Pochazia inclyta Walker, 1870 [the Australian record of this species was made by Schmidt (1905: 171). This is the only record of the genus from Australia and must be treated with some doubt until further specimens of the species are collected. P. inclyta is otherwise only found in Indonesia] — Schmidt, E. 1905. Die Ricaniiden des Stettiner Museums. Stettiner Entomologische Zeitung 66: 168-198 [171]

Diagnosis

Hind tibia lacking mobile spur at apex; second segment of hind tarsi small, apically rounded or pointed, without spines; frons wider than long, with lateral margins rounded, not angulate; clypeus lacking lateral carinae.

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

Fletcher, M.J. 2008. A key to the genera of Ricaniidae (Hemiptera: Fulgoromorpha) recorded in Australia with notes on the Australian fauna, including a new species of Epithalamium Kirkaldy. Australian Journal of Entomology 47: 107-120

History of changes