Macrostelini Kirkaldy 1906
Creators: name: Zahniser, James N.
name: Dietrich, Chris H.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2013
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hemiptera
Cicadellidae

description: Macrostelini Kirkaldy, 1906
Fig. 34
Type genus: Macrosteles Fieber, 1866.
= Balcluthini Baker, 1915.
= Gnathodini Baker, 1915.
= Coryphaelini Nast, 1972.
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
Cicadabara Knight & Webb, 1993
Cicadulella China, 1928
Cicadulina China, 1926
Cicaduloida Osborn, 1934
Cortona Oman, 1938
Coryphaelus Puton, 1886
Dalbulus DeLong, 1950
Davisonia Dorst, 1937
Elrabonia Linnavuori, 1959
Evinus Dlabola, 1977
Kadrabolina Knight & Webb, 1993
Macrosteles Fieber, 1866
Marquesitettix Metcalf, 1952
Masafuera Knight & Webb, 1993
Nesoclutha Evans, 1947
Nesolina Osborn, 1935
Nesophyla Osborn, 1934
Nesoriella Osborn, 1934
Nyhimbricus Webb, 1986
Paracicadula Osborn, 1934
Sagatus Ribaut, 1948
Sanctahelenia Dlabola, 1976
Scaphoidulina Osborn, 1934
Scaphosteles Knight & Webb, 1993
Sonronius Dorst, 1937
Stellena Theron, 1973
Teyasteles Linnavuori, 1969
Yamatotettix Matsumura, 1914
description: Published as part of Zahniser, James N. & Dietrich, Chris H., 2013, A review of the tribes of Deltocephalinae (Hemiptera: Auchenorrhyncha: Cicadellidae), pp. 1-211 in European Journal of Taxonomy 45 on pages 110-113, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2013.45, http://zenodo.org/record/3822710