Opsiini Emeljanov 1962

Opsiini Emeljanov, 1962

Figs 38-41

Type genus: Opsius Fieber, 1866.

Diagnosis

Opsiini are small to large, stramineous, yellow, green, or brown leafhoppers. They can be identified by the bifurcate aedeagus with two shafts and gonopores. Some Mukariini and Ascius (Scaphytopiini) have a similarly divided aedeagus but Opsiini lack the other characters that define those groups.

Description

HEAD. Head subequal to or wider than or distinctly narrower than pronotum. Discal portion of crown glabrous with radial or longitudinal striae. Anterior margin of head shagreen, glabrous or irregularly textured, with numerous transverse striations, or foliaceous (Chlidochrus Emeljanov, 1962). Frontoclypeus not tumid; texture shagreen or glabrous. Clypellus parallel-sided, tapering apically, or widening apically; apex following or slightly surpassing normal curve of gena. Lorum subequal to or wider 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 or weakly developed (carinate or weakly carinate). Ocelli absent or reduced or present; close to eyes; on anterior margin of head.

THORAX. Pronotum lateral margin not carinate or carinate; lateral margin shorter than basal width of eye. W INGS. Forewing brachypterous to macropterous; appendix restricted to anal margin; with 3 anteapical cells; veins not raised; with or without reflexed costal veins; A1-A2 crossvein absent or present; apical venation not highly reticulate.

LEGS. Profemur with AM1 seta only; intercalary row with one row of five or more fine setae; row AV with short, stout setae. Protibia dorsal surface rounded, convex. Metafemur apex macrosetae 2+0, 2+1, 2+2, or 2+2+1. Metatarsomere I not expanded apically; plantar setae simple, tapered.

MALE GENITALIA. Apodemes of male sternites I and II often very well-developed. Valve articulated with pygofer; lateral margin short, articulating with pygofer at a point. Pygofer dorsoapical margin not strongly incised or incised to near mid-length; basolateral membranous cleft present; macrosetae absent or reduced (≤ two rows) or well differentiated into several rows. Subgenital plates free from each other; articulated with valve; without macrosetae or with macrosetae irregularly arranged or uniseriate laterally. Style broadly bilobed basally, median anterior lobe pronounced. Basal processes of the aedeagus/connective absent, reduced, or present and fused to base of aedeagus. Aedeagus shaft divided near base, with two gonopores, or shaft divided toward apex and forming semicircles (Circuliferina), with two gonopores. Connective anterior arms somewhat divergent, Y - or U -shaped; articulated with aedeagus.

FEMALE GENITALIA. Pygofer with macrosetae reduced or absent or with numerous macrosetae. Ovipositor protruding or not protruding far beyond pygofer apex. First valvula convex or not strongly convex; dorsal sculpturing pattern strigate, concatenate, reticulate, with rectangular shaped cells, granulose, maculose, or imbricate (with overlapping scales); sculpturing reaching dorsal margin or submarginal; without distinctly delimited ventroapical sculpturing. Second valvula broad and gradually tapered, gradually broadened medially or subapically, or slender throughout; without dorsal median tooth; teeth on apical 1/3 or more or restricted to apical 1/4 or less; teeth small, regularly or irregularly shaped.

Geography and ecology

Distribution: cosmopolitan. Opsiini feed on a wide variety of herbaceous and woody dicots. Opsius stactogalus Fieber, 1866, a Palearctic species introduced in the New World, feeds on tamarix. This tribe contains several species of economic importance. Neoaliturus (Circulifer) tenellus (Baker, 1896) is the vector of beet curly top, tomato big bud, and 16SrV-16SrIX. N. (C.) haematoceps (Mulsant & Rey, 1855) vectors sesame phyllody and 16SrV-16SrIX. Orosius orientalis (Matsumura, 1914) transmits tomato big bud, tobacco yellow dwarf, lucerne witches’ broom, legume little leaf, mosaic I, potato purple top wilt, and witches’ broom of groundnuts. Orosius albicinctus Distant, 1918 transmits sesame phyllody. Hishimonus phycitis (Distant, 1908) vectors eggplant little leaf. Hishimonoides sellatiformis Ishihara, 1965 and Hishimonus sellatus (Uhler, 1896) are vectors of mulberry dwarf and the latter leafhopper is also a vector of Rhus yellows, jujube witches’ broom, and Cryptotaenia japonica witches’ broom. Hishimonoides chinensis Anufriev, 1970 is a vector of jujube witches’ broom.

Remarks

Opsiini contains 36 genera and 303 species.The phylogenetic analyses here included eight representatives of the tribe including the following that are included in analyses for the first time: Pseudophlepsius Zachvatkin, 1924, Orosius Distant, 1918, Nesophrosyne Kirkaldy, 1907, Japananus Ball, 1931 (previously in Scaphytopiini), and an undescribed genus near Libengaia from Zambia. The ML and Bayesian analyses resolved it as monophyletic but with low branch support, and the parsimony analysis resolved it as two separate monophyletic groups. The present phylogenetic analyses included more representatives of Opsiini than previous analyses and are the first to suggest the tribe is monophyletic. Strong branch support was recovered for some internal relationships within the tribe, but more representatives and more branch support are needed in future analyses to test the current subtribal classification.

Opsiini is a morphologically diverse tribe. Except for the bifurcate aedeagus with two gonopores, there seem to be very few, if any, characters that can define the tribe entirely. It appears that the bifurcate aedeagus has arisen at least three times in the evolutionary history of Deltocephalinae. The finding that Japananus (previously included in Scaphytopiini based on the produced head and very broad gena) is related to Opsiini rather than Scaphytopiini underscores the utility of the bifurcate aedeagus as a predictor of relationships and helpful for classification at the tribal level. However, it is necessary to corroborate any taxonomic hypothesis based on this character with other morphological characters or molecular data. For example, Ascius DeLong, 1943 also has a bifurcate aedeagus, but it is retained in Scaphytopiini because it shares the numerous distinct reflexed costal veins and the widely separated anterior arms of the connective with Scaphytopius Ball, 1931, along with the produced head and broad gena.

Several genera (Afrascius Linnavuori, 1969; Japananus; Kirkaldiella Osborn, 1935; Masiripius Dlabola, 1981; Navaia Linnavuori, 1960; Phlepsopsius Dlabola, 1979 and Pugla Distant, 1908) are transferred to Opsiina from other tribes here because they share the bifurcate aedeagus and other similarities (e.g., brown irrorate color pattern) to some opsiines. Their placement to subtribe should be tested in future studies. Dixianu s Ball, 1918 and Lycioides Oman, 1949 are included in Circuliferina following the suggestion of Emeljanov (1962) that Lycioides is closely related to Neoaliturus Distant, 1918, based in part on the shape of the aedeagus.

Selected references

Zimmerman (1948), Emeljanov (1962), Ghauri (1966), Knight (1970a, b), Linnavuori (1969), Dmitriev (2002), Dai et al. (2010), Dai et al. (2011), Bennett & O’Grady (2011).

Included subtribes: