Skip to main content
ARS Home » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #190066
Title: FIXATION OF THE TYPE-SPECIES OF HOMALODISCA STÅL AS H. VITRIPENNIS (GERMAR), THE OLDEST NAME FOR THE GLASSY-WINGED SHARPSHOOTER (HEMIPTERA: CICADELLIDAE: CICADELLINAE)

Author
item TAKIYA, DANIELA - IL.NAT.HIST.ILLINOIS
item McKamey, Stuart - Stu
item CAVICHIOLI, RODNEY - UNIV.FED.DO PARANA,BRASIL

Submitted to: Entomology Society America Annual Meeting
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/14/2006
Publication Date: 7/14/2006
Citation: Takiya, D.M., Mckamey, S.H., Cavichioli, R.R. 2006. Fixation of the type-species of Homalodisca Stål as H. vitripennis (Germar), the oldest name for the glassy-winged sharpshooter (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae: Cicadellinae). Entomology Society America Annual Meeting. 99(4):648-655.

Interpretive Summary: A leafhopper, the glassy-winged sharpshooter (GWSS), transmits a bacterium, Xylella fastidiosa, that causes diseases in agricultural and horticultural crops and ornamentals from the United States to Argentina. In California vineyards, this insect threatens 750,000 acres of wine, table, and raisin grapes, a $33 billion per year wine industry. This research verified the scientific name and classification of this insect. It was discovered to belong to another, older group name, and is now known as Homalodisca vitripennis. This paper will create nomenclatural stability, and increase the efficiency of governmental (including APHIS), agricultural, and research workers in the dissemination, storage, and retrieval of information on this important species.

Technical Abstract: A male lectotype of Tettigonia vitripennis Germar — deposited in the allegedly lost Germar Hemiptera collection, but recently found in the Ivan Franko National University (Ukraine) — is herein designated and assumed to be erroneously labeled from Brazil. Homalodisca vitripennis is considered a senior synonym of Tettigonia coagulata syn. nov., and should therefore used as the new scientific name for the glassy-winged sharpshooter, a major vector of the bacterial Pierce´s disease of grapes, phony peach disease, plum leaf scald, and oleander leaf scorch in southern US and northern Mexico. Furthermore, due to a misidentification of the previous type-species of Homalodisca Stål by the subsequent designator, Tettigonia vitripennis is herein fixed as the new type-species of this economically important genus. The previously designated type-species of Homalodisca, Cicada triquetra F., is herein transferred to Propetes Walker. Propetes triquetra comb. nov., represented previously only from an unknown locality in South America, is herein newly recorded from Brazil (Mato Grosso and Pará states).