Family TETTIGARCTIDAE

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Introduction

Distant (1905) established this family-group name (as his Division Tettigarctaria). Following Article 36.1 of the Code (4th edition), the original author and date are to be retained for any subsequent ranking; alternative authorities appearing in the literature are erroneous.

There are species in 13 other genera of Tettigarctidae known only from Cenozoic fossils from the Northern Hemisphere (Nel 1996; Shcherbakov 1996).

The adults of Tettigarcta are nocturnal, hiding away from strong light during the day. They are incapable of producing airborne songs as do males of the Cicadidae, but rather males and females communicate using tymbal vibration transmitted through the substrate below the adult (Claridge et.al. 1999). These substrate vibrations are detected by the sensory empodia between the pretarsal claws on all legs.

Diagnosis

The family is characterised by having males and females with functional but very small tymbals; tympana absent; abdominal resonant cavity absent; forewing radial posterior (RP) arising closer to wing base than to node, veins CuP, 1a, 2A and 3A separated; nervous system with thoracic ganglia separated; male genitalia with harpagones; tarsal empodia present; pronotum greatly expanded concealing much of mesonotum (Evans 1941; Moulds 1990).

ID Keys

https://idtools.dpi.nsw.gov.au/keys/cicada/index.html

Diagnosis References

Evans, J.W. 1941. The morphology of Tettigarcta tomentosa White, (Homoptera, Cicadidae). Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania 1940: 35-49

Moulds, M.S. 1990. Australian Cicadas. Kensington : New South Wales University Press 217 pp.

General References

Claridge, M.F., Morgan, J.C. & Moulds, M.S. 1999. Substrate-transmitted acoustic signals of the primitive cicada, Tettigarcta crinita Distant (Hemiptera, Cicadoidea, Tettigarctidae). Journal of Natural History 33: 1831-1834

Distant, W.L. 1905. Rhynchotal notes–XXXII. Annals and Magazine of Natural History 7 15: 478-486

Evans, J.W. 1941. The morphology of Tettigarcta tomentosa White, (Homoptera, Cicadidae). Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania 1940: 35-49

Moulds, M.S. 1990. Australian Cicadas. Kensington : New South Wales University Press 217 pp.

Nel, A. 1996. Un Tettigarctidae fossile du Lias européen (Cicadomorpha, Cicadoidea, Tettigarctidae). Ecole pratique des hautes Etudes, travaux du Laboratoire Biologie et Evolution des Insectes Hemipteroidea 9: 83-94

Shcherbakov, D.E. 1996. Origin and Evolution of the Auchenorrhyncha as shown by the fossil record. pp. 31-45 in Schaefer, C.W. (ed.). Studies on Hemipteran Phylogeny. Lanham : Entomological Society of America (Th. Say Publ. Entomol.).

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