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Contents
Family Cixiidae Spinola, 1839
Subfamily Cixiinae Spinola, 1839
Tribe Cixiini Spinola, 1839
Genus: Asotocixius Kramer, 1983
Type species
Asotocixius diopter Kramer, 1983.
Synonyms: None.
Distribution: Southwestern US
Recognized species
There is a single species in this genus
Asotocixius diopter Kramer, 1983 – USA: AZ, CA, NV
Economic Importance
Limited – species is infrequently encountered.
Known host plants
None
Recognition
Mesonotum with 3 carinae, posterior portion of head not incised (Cixiini), hind tibiae without lateral spines, tegulae not hidden, median carina of frons present; all carinae present on vertex.
Description from Kramer 1983
Comparatively large cixiids (6.0-9.0 mm), head in dorsal view about two-thirds as wide as pronotum, eyes longer than wide, crown with lateral margins carinate and slightly elevated, longitudinal midline carinate in basal half, distally-angled transverse carina between anterior portions of eyes, crown and frons separated by broad and flat carina, posterior margin of crown broadly incised; head in lateral view with extreme apex bluntly angular; head in facial view with greatest width of frons exceeding median longitudinal length, its midline and lateral margins carinate, frontal ocellus distinct, clypeus triangular, its lateral margins at least in part bluntly carinate; pronotum not greatly narrowed at middle, its middle portion tricarinate, extreme lateral portions longitudinally bicarinate, tegulae well developed, mesonotum large, longer than wide, and tricarinate, hind tibiae without spines before apex, venation as in fig. 14, apical cells on costal margin wider than long, apical cells on anal margin longer than wide, veins with setae-bearing pustules in females, veins with only very few scattered pale pustules in males. Male genitalia: typical of family, aedeagal flagellum more than half length of shaft, but with scattered and inconspicuous white hairs on genital capsule.
Notes. – Asotocixius greatly resembles Platycixius in venation of the forewings and general habitus, but it is less depressed than that genus and retains the median longitudinal carina on the frons, which is absent in Platycixius.
Online resources
Discover Life.
EOL.
FLOW.
3I Interactive Keys and Taxonomic Databases (Dmitry Dmitriev)
Collecting
[?]
Molecular resources
As of this writing, there are no molecular data for this genus on Barcode of Life or Genbank.
Selected references
Bartlett, C. R., L. B. O’Brien and S. W. Wilson. 2014. A review of the planthoppers (Hemiptera: Fulgoroidea) of the United States. Memoirs of the American Entomological Society 50: 1-287.
Kramer, J. P. 1983. Taxonomic study of the planthopper family Cixiidae in the United States (Homoptera: Fulgoroidea). Transactions of the American Entomological Society 109: 1-57.
Spinola, M. 1839a. Essai sur les Fulgorelles, sous-tribu de la tribu des Cicadaires, ordre des Rhyngotes. Annales de la Société Entomologique de France 8: 133-337.
Wilson, S. W., C. Mitter, R. F. Denno and M. R. Wilson. 1994. Evolutionary patterns of host plant use by delphacid planthoppers and their relatives. In: R. F. Denno and T. J. Perfect, (eds.). Planthoppers: Their Ecology and Management. Chapman and Hall, New York. Pp. 7-45 & Appendix.