Macrostelini Kirkaldy, 1906

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 : 110-113

publication ID	https://doi.org/ 10.5852/ejt.2013.45
publication LSID	lsid:zoobank.org:pub:41B10E4D-7DAB-40CA-A8FE-4ECA078E04A3
DOI	https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3844625
persistent identifier	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/6903BC00-A323-FF96-AC74-E296297BF903
treatment provided by	Carolina
scientific name	Macrostelini Kirkaldy, 1906
status

Treatment

Macrostelini Kirkaldy, 1906 View in CoL View at ENA

Fig. 34 View Fig

Type genus: Macrosteles Fieber, 1866 View in CoL .

= Balcluthini Baker, 1915 View in CoL .

= Gnathodini Baker, 1915 View in CoL .

= Coryphaelini Nast, 1972 View in CoL .

Diagnosis

Macrostelini are small to medium sized, slender, often stramineous, yellow, or greenish leafhoppers, with or without dark markings. They can be identified by their long, slender shape, forewing with 2 anteapical cells, subgenital plates usually with membranous digitate apical lobe, and male pygofer macrosetae sometimes plumose.

Description

HEAD. Head subequal to or wider than pronotum or distinctly narrower than pronotum. Discal portion of crown glabrous with radial or longitudinal striae or shagreen. Anterior margin of head shagreen. Frontoclypeus not tumid; texture shagreen. Clypellus parallel-sided or tapering apically; apex following or slightly surpassing normal curve of gena. Lorum subequal to, wider than, or distinctly narrower than clypellus near base.Antennal bases near middle or posteroventral (lower) corners of eyes.Antennae short, less than 1.5 x width of head. Gena obtusely incised laterally; with fine erect seta beside laterofrontal suture. Antennal ledges absent. Ocelli present; close to or distant from eyes; on anterior margin of head.

THORAX. Pronotum lateral margin carinate or not; lateral margin shorter, as long as, or longer than basal width of eye.

WINGS. Forewing macropterous or submacropterous; appendix restricted to anal margin; with 2 anteapical cells; veins not raised; without reflexed costal veins; A1-A2 crossvein absent; apical venation not highly reticulate.

LEGS. Profemur with AM1 seta only; intercalary row with one row of five or more fine setae; row AV without setae, with thin hair-like setae, or with short, stout setae. Protibia dorsal surface rounded, convex. Metafemur apex macrosetae 2+1+1 or 2+2+1. Metatarsomere I not expanded apically; plantar setae simple, tapered.

MALE GENITALIA. Valve articulated with pygofer; lateral margin short, articulating with pygofer at a point. Pygofer basolateral membranous cleft present; macrosetae absent or reduced (≤ two rows) or well differentiated into several rows; macrosetae sometimes plumose. Subgenital plates free from each other; articulated with valve; macrosetae uniseriate laterally. Style broadly bilobed basally, median anterior lobe pronounced. Basal processes of the aedeagus/connective absent or reduced. Aedeagus with single shaft and gonopore. Connective anterior arms somewhat divergent, Y - or U -shaped; articulated with aedeagus.

FEMALE GENITALIA. Pygofer with numerous macrosetae. Ovipositor not protruding far beyond pygofer apex. First valvula convex or not strongly convex; dorsal sculpturing pattern granulose, maculose, or imbricate (with overlapping scales); sculpturing reaching dorsal margin or submarginal; without distinctly delimited ventroapical sculpturing or with distinctly delimited apicoventral sculpturing. Second valvula abruptly broadened medially or subapically, or broad, gradually tapered, or gradually broadened medially or subapically; without dorsal median tooth; if present, teeth on apical 1/3 or more; teeth absent or small, regularly or irregularly shaped.

Geography and ecology

Distribution: cosmopolitan. Some genera (e.g., Balclutha , Dalbulus ) feed mostly on grasses or sedges, while others (e.g., Macrosteles ) feed on a wide variety of hosts including herbaceous dicots, grasses, and sedges. Macrosteles frontalis (Scott, 1875) lives on horsetail ( Equisetum sp.), a primitive vascular plant. This tribe includes a number of economically important vectors of plant pathogens. Dalbulus maidis (DeLong, 1923) , the corn leafhopper, and D. elimatus (Ball, 1900) are especially damaging to maize as vectors of corn stunt spiroplasma, maize bushy stunt phytoplasma, and maize rayado fino virus in Mexico and Central and South America (Nault & Ammar 1989). Macrosteles quadrilineatus (Forbes, 1885) , the aster leafhopper, transmits American and European aster yellows to numerous plants. Other species of Macrosteles transmit clover phyllody, clover dwarf, aster yellows, stolbur, Koksaghyz yellows, chrysanthemum yellows, lissers, anemone witches’ broom, eggplant dwarf, garland chrysanthemum witches’ broom, marguerite yellows, mitsuba witches’ broom, onion yellows, tomato yellows, white leaf phytoplasma, little cherry, and oat blue dwarf. Cicadulina mbila (Naudé, 1924) and congeneric species transmit maize streak in sub-Saharan Africa.

Remarks

Macrostelini contains 37 genera and 316 species. A morphological phylogenetic analysis ( Knight & Webb 1993) which included exemplars of all genera resolved the tribe as monophyletic. Three of the four exemplars in phylogenetic analyses here ( Macrosteles , Dalbulus , and Balclutha ) were resolved as a monophyletic group with strong branch support. This monophyletic group is included in the large grassfeeding clade but its relationship to other tribes in the clade is not clear. The fourth exemplar included in analyses here is Evinus which was recently placed in the tribe ( Lu et al. 2011); it was resolved near the grass feeding tribes Chiasmini , Stenometopiini, and Eupelicini but branch support was not strong and its exact relationship to other Deltocephalinae needs further study. Like other Macrostelini , it has two anteapical cells in the forewing.

Selected references

Blocker (1967), Knight (1987), Knight & Webb (1993), Webb & Vilbaste (1994), Dietrich et al. (1998), Dmitriev (2003).

Included genera

Aderganna Knight & Webb, 1993

Afrosteles Theron, 1975

Agelina Oman, 1938

Alebranus Linnavuori, 1959

Argaterma White, 1878

Atlantocella Dlabola, 1982

Balclutha Kirkaldy, 1900

Baldulus Oman, 1934

Balolina Knight & Webb, 1988