Dorycephalini Oman , 1943

Zahniser, James N. & Dietrich, Chris H., 2013, A review of the tribes of Deltocephalinae (Hemiptera: Auchenorrhyncha: Cicadellidae), European Journal of Taxonomy 45, pp. 1-211 : 65-68

Dorycephalini Oman, 1943

Fig. 18

Type genus: Dorycephalus Kouchakewitch, 1866 .

Diagnosis

Dorycephalini are medium sized, elongate, dorsoventrally flattened, greenish or ivory to brownish leafhoppers. They can be identified by the strongly produced, spatulate, and flattened head with anterior margin foliaceous, long pronotum, raised forewing veins, forewing with two anteapical cells, metafemur apex macrosetae 2+0, and hind tibia distinctly bent apically. Eupelicini and some Hecalini (particularly Attenuipyga and Neoslossonia which were previously placed in Dorycephalini) share some of these characters, but Dorycephalini can be distinguished from Eupelicini by the crown not encroaching onto eyes as in Eupelicina, head wider and more spatulate-shaped than Paradorydiina, and valve not fused to the pygofer and style not gracile as in Paradorydiina. From Attenuipyga and Neoslossonia (Hecalini) , Dorycephalini can be distinguished by the forewing veins A1 and A2 separate throughout their length, male pygofer lobate apically and not distinctly pointed posterodorsally, style apophysis slightly expanded, rounded apically, aedeagus without processes, female first valvula without distinctly delimited ventroapical sculpturing, second valvulae not humpbacked dorsally, and second valvulae with distinct teeth.

Description

HEAD. Head subequal to or wider than pronotum; elongate; spatulate. Discal portion of crown rugose. Anterior margin of head foliaceous. Frontoclypeus tumid; texture shagreen. Clypellus parallel-sided or tapering apically; apex following or slightly surpassing normal curve of gena. Lorum distinctly narrower than clypellus near base. Antennal bases near upper or anterodorsal corners of eyes. Antennae short, less than 1.5 x width of head. Gena strongly incised laterally (nearly forming right angle); without fine erect seta beside laterofrontal suture. Antennal ledges absent. Ocelli present; somewhat distant from eyes; on crown.

THORAX. Pronotum lateral margin carinate; lateral margin as long as or longer than basal width of eye.

WINGS. Forewing submacropterous to brachypterous; appendix absent or reduced; with 2 anteapical cells; veins distinctly raised or carinate; without reflexed costal veins; A1-A2 crossvein absent; A1 and A2 separate from each other throughout their length; apical venation not highly reticulate.

LEGS. Profemur with AM1 absent or reduced; intercalary row reduced or absent; row AV with relatively long macrosetae. Protibia dorsal surface rounded, convex. Metafemur apex macrosetae 2+0. Metatarsomere I expanded apically; plantar surface with one or more platellae.

MALE GENITALIA. Apodemes of sternite I long and wide; those of sternite II not well-developed. Valve articulated with pygofer; with short point of articulation with pygofer. Pygofer dorsoapical margin incised to near mid-length; basolateral membranous cleft present; macrosetae absent or reduced (≤ two rows). Subgenital plates free from each other; articulated with valve; without macrosetae. Style broadly bilobed basally, median anterior lobe pronounced. Basal processes of the aedeagus/connective absent. Aedeagus without basal hinge; with a single shaft and gonopore. Connective anterior arms somewhat divergent, Y - or U -shaped; articulated with aedeagus.

FEMALE GENITALIA. Pygofer with macrosetae reduced or absent. Ovipositor not protruding far beyond pygofer apex. First valvula not strongly convex; dorsal sculpturing pattern granulose or maculose; sculpturing submarginal; without distinctly delimited ventroapical sculpturing. Second valvula broad, gradually tapered; without dorsal median tooth; teeth on apical 1/3 or more; teeth small, regularly or irregularly shaped.

Geography and ecology

Distribution: Palearctic. The two known species feed on grasses. Their elongate, flattened shape appears to be an adaptation for crypsis and closely appressing against grass blades.

Remarks

Dorycephalini as circumscribed here contains only the type genus and its 2 species. Dorycephalus was included in molecular phylogenetic analyses here for the first time. It was added to the data set only after branch support analyses were already completed so it is not present in the trees figured with branch support but is included in Fig. 6 . In ML analyses of the molecular data only (28S + H3) Dorycephalus was recovered in the grass-specialist clade including Chiasmini , Eupelicini, Stenometopiini, and some others, and was quite distant from the long branch uniting Hecalus and Attenuipyga . Based on this result and because it does not share the characters which unite Attenuipyga , Neoslossonia , and Hecalini (see Diagnosis of Hecalini below), Dorycephalini is retained as a monotypic tribe here, and Attenuipgyga and Neoslossonia are placed in Hecalini .

Selected references

Oman (1985 a), Dmitriev (2001).

Included genera

Dorycephalus Kouchakewitch, 1866

Figures

Fig. 18. Dorycephalini. Dorycephalus baeri Kouchakewitch, 1866. A–I. Standard views (see Material & Methods). J. Ventral view of abdominal sternites I-III, showing large apodemes of sternite I (s1ap) and apodemes of sternite II (s2ap).

Fig. 6. ML tree inferred from analysis of molecular data only. This tree is included to illustrate the difference between including or excluding the morphological data from the phylogenetic analyses (see Fig. 5 for comparison of ML-inferred tree with morphological data). This analysis is the only one performed here to include Dorycephalus (Dorycephalini), and its position is highlighted.