Systematic revision of Aluntiini Emeljanov, 1979 (Hemiptera: Fulgoromorpha: Dictyopharidae: Dictyopharinae): reclassification, phylogenetic analysis, and biogeography

Abstract

The dictyopharid planthopper tribe Aluntiini s.l. is revised and reclassified into two tribes: Aluntiini s.s. and Arjunini Song & Szwedo trib. nov. The tribe Aluntiini s.s. includes five genera: Aluntia Stål, 1866; Dendrophora Melichar, 1903 stat. rev.; Dictyomorpha Melichar, 1912; Indodictyophara Liang & Song, 2012; and Madagascaritia Song & Liang gen. nov. The new tribe Arjunini comprises two genera – Arjuna Muir, 1934 and Pippax Emeljanov, 2008 – both moved from Aluntiini s.l. Four new species – Aluntia longicephalica Song & Szwedo sp. nov., Madagascaritia angusta Song & Liang sp. nov., Arjuna maai Song & Wang sp. nov., and Arjuna muiri Song & Wang sp. nov. – are described. A morphologically based phylogenetic analysis is undertaken for Aluntiini, Arjunini, and the representatives of Dictyopharini, Hastini, Orthopagini, and the fossil Worskaitini within Dictyopharinae, all distributed in the Old World. A matrix of 129 characters of the habitus, coloration, head, thorax, and male and female genitalia of the adults was used for the cladistic analysis. The phylogenetic results show that Aluntiini s.l. as placed in Dictyopharidae is well supported, but it is distinctly paraphyletic and should be separated into two unambiguous tribes. A palaeotropical distribution pattern displayed by Aluntiini is suggested. The origin and diversification of Aluntiini are discussed preliminarily. © 2015 The Linnean Society of London

Morphological phylogeny of Dictyopharidae (Hemiptera: Fulgoromorpha)

“…Dictyopharinae currently comprise 13 extant tribes and two extinct tribes (Melichar, ; Muir, ; Metcalf, ; Emeljanov, , , , ; Szwedo, ; Song et al ., ). Species in most tribes are hyperpterous, i.e.…”

“…In 2014, Emeljanov described the third micropterous tribe, Rancodini Emeljanov from Chile, and Song et al . () separated a new tribe, Arjunini Song & Szwedo, from Aluntiini based on a phylogeny inferred from morphological data.…”

Revision of the Afrotropical planthopper genus Centromeriana Melichar, 1912 (Hemiptera, Dictyopharidae)

“…The morphological terminology and measurements used in this study follow Song et al (2016bSong et al ( , 2016c for most characters, Bourgoin (1993) for the female genitalia, and Bourgoin et al (2015) for the forewing. The genus-level features are not repeated in species-level descriptions.…”

“…The larger nominotypic Dictyopharinae is further split in 13 extant tribes (Emeljanov 2011;Song et al 2016b). One of them is Orthopagini erected by Emeljanov (1983) for Orthopagus Uhler, 1896, and six other genera and later extended to include a total of 23 extant and one fossil genera (Emeljanov 2011;Emeljanov & Shcherbakov 2011;Song et al 2016c).…”

“…Most species are known to be associated with dicotyledonous herbs, dwarf shrubs or trees but there are also some dictyopharids feeding on grasses (Wilson et al 1994; Bartlett et al 2014). Dictyopharidae currently includes approximately 740 described species in 169 genera, most of which are distributed in tropical and subtropical regions (Song et al 2014(Song et al , 2016bBourgoin 2016). In the Afrotropical region, 104 species are known from sub-Saharan continental Africa .…”