Leafhopper is the common name for any species from the family Cicadellidae: based on the type genus Cicadella. These minute , colloquially known as hoppers, are plant feeders that suck plant sap from grass, shrubs, or trees. Their hind legs are modified for jumping, and are covered with hairs that facilitate the spreading of a secretion over their bodies that acts as a water repellent and carrier of .[ The family is distributed all over the world, and constitutes the second-largest hemipteran family, with at least 20,000 described species.
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They belong to a lineage traditionally treated as infraorder Cicadomorpha in the suborder Auchenorrhyncha. This has sometimes been placed in its own suborder (Clypeorrhyncha),
Members of the tribe Proconiini of the subfamily Cicadellinae are commonly known as sharpshooters.
Description and ecology
The Cicadellidae combine the following features:
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The thickened part of the antennae is very short and ends with a bristle (arista).
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Two ocellus (simple eyes) are present on the top or front of the head.
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The Arthropod leg are made of three segments.
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The femora are at front with, at most, weak spines.
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The hind tibiae have one or more distinct keels, with a row of movable spines on each, sometimes on enlarged bases.
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The base of the middle legs is close together where they originate under the thorax.
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The front wings not particularly thickened.
An additional and unique character of leafhoppers is the production of , which are thought to protect the animals, and particularly their egg clutches, from predation as well as pathogens.
Like other Exopterygota, the leafhoppers undergo direct development from nymph to adult without a stage. While many leafhoppers are drab little insects as is typical for the Membracoidea, the adults and nymphs of some species are quite colorful. Some – in particular Stegelytrinae – have largely translucent wings and resemble fly at a casual glance.
Leafhoppers have piercing-sucking mouthparts, enabling them to feed on plant sap. A leafhoppers' diet commonly consists of sap from a wide and diverse range of plants, but some are more host-specific. Leafhoppers mainly are , but some are known to eat smaller insects, such as , on occasion. A few species are known to be mud-puddling, but as it seems, females rarely engage in such behavior. Many species are also known to opportunistically pierce the human skin and draw blood but the function of such behaviour is unclear.
Leafhoppers are that can act as disease vector transmitting , such as plant virus, and bacteria.[ ]
In some cases, the plant pathogens distributed by leafhoppers are also of the insects themselves, and can replicate within the leafhoppers' . Leafhoppers are also susceptible to various insect pathogens, including Dicistroviridae viruses, bacteria and fungi; numerous attack the eggs and the adults provide food for small .
Some species such as the Australian Kahaono montana even build silk nests under the leaves of trees they live in, to protect them from predators.
Systematics
In the now-obsolete classification that was used throughout much of the 20th century, the leafhoppers were part of the Homoptera, a paraphyletic assemblage uniting the basal lineages of Hemiptera and ranked as suborder. The splitting of the Homoptera is likely to be repeated for the Auchenorrhyncha for similar reasons, as the Auchenorrhyncha simply seem to group the moderately advanced Hemiptera, regardless of the fact the highly Coleorrhyncha and Heteroptera (typical bugs) evolved from auchenorrhynchans. Hence, a recent trend treats the most advanced hemipterans as three or four lineages, namely Archaeorrhyncha (Fulgoromorpha if included in Auchenorrhyncha), Coleorrhyncha and Heteroptera (sometimes united as Prosorrhyncha) and Clypeorrhyncha.
Within the latter, the three traditional superfamilies – Cercopoidea (froghoppers and spittlebugs), Cicadoidea (cicadas) and Membracoidea – appear to be monophyletic. The leafhoppers are the most basal living lineage of Membracoidea, which otherwise include the families Aetalionidae (aetalionid ), Membracidae (typical treehoppers and thorn bugs), Melizoderidae, and Myerslopiidae.
Subfamilies
'' (Typhlocybinae)|240x240px]]The leafhoppers are divided into 25 subfamilies,
File:Aphrodes makarovi in copula.ogv| Aphrodes makarovi in copula (Aphrodinae)
File:Leaf Hopper - Phoenix Arizona - Unknown Species.jpg| Gyponana from Arizona
File:Coppery Leafhopper (Jikradia olitoria) - Guelph, Ontario 2016-08-01.jpg| Jikradia olitoria (subfamily Coelidiinae)
File:Evacanthus nigramericanus male.jpg| Evacanthus nigramericanus (subfamily Evacanthinae)
File:Stirellus bicolor Kaldari 01.jpg| Stirellus bicolor (subfamily Deltocephalinae)
File:Fieberiella florii private leafhooper.webm| Fieberiella florii nymph leafhopper
See also
Further reading
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Carver, M, FG. Gross, and TE. Woodward. 1991. Hemiptera (bugs, leafhoppers, cicadas, aphids, scale insects, etc.) In: The Insects of Australia – a Textbook for Students and Research Workers Volume 1. Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, Australia".
External links
