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| Insects of Britain and Ireland: the families of Hemiptera |
Tree-hoppers.
Salient features of adults. Terrestrial.
Phytophagous. Small; about 5 mm long (one species), or 9 mm long (the other); fliers; conspicuous jumpers; relatively stout bodied. Rostrum not separated from the prosternum by a gula. Antennae longer than the head, readily visible from above; consisting of short segments with a terminal, unsegmented arista that is much longer than the segments. Ocelli present; 2; between the eyes. Thorax conspicuously crested (and hugely extended posteriorly). Tegulae absent. Fore-wings well developed; in the resting insect sloping roof-like over the abdomen; more or less uniform in texture; with transparent cells; without costal fracture and cuneus; with a clavus; with conspicuously raised, reticulate venation. Clavus without convergence of veins to form a Y. Hind coxae immobile (forming transverse plates occupying most of the ventral surface of the metathorax). The posterior tibiae longitudinally keeled. Tarsi 3 segmented.
The pronotum extended posteriorly to form a hood over the abdomen, and bent so that its front and the dorsal surface of the head are almost vertical.
Taxonomy. Suborder Homoptera. Auchenorrhyncha. Membracoidea.
British representation. 2 species in Britain; genera 2. Centrotus, Gargara. E.g., G. genistae (Broom Tree-hopper).
Illustrations. • Gargara genistae (Broom Tree-hopper: B. Ent. 313). • Gargara genistae (detail: B. Ent. 313). • Gargara genistae (dissections: B. Ent. 313). • Gargara genistae (legend+text: B. Ent. 313). • Gargara genistae: B. Ent. 313, text cont.). • Centrotus cornutus and Gargara genistae, with Cicadidae, Issidae and Tettigometridae: Edwards. MEMBRACIDAE. 2, Centrotus cornutus; 3, Gargara genistae.CICADIDAE. 1, Cicadetta montana. TETTIGOMETRIDAE. 4, Tettigometra impressopunctata. ISSIDAE. 5, Issus coleoptratus. From Edwards (1896) Plate 3, updated nomenclaturally and with approximate lengths added.
We advise against extracting comparative information from the descriptions. This is much more easily achieved using the DELTA data files or the interactive key, which allows access to the character list, illustrations, full and partial descriptions, diagnostic descriptions, differences and similarities between taxa, lists of taxa exhibiting or lacking specified attributes, and distributions of character states within any set of taxa. See also Guidelines for using data taken from Web publications.
Cite this publication as: ‘Watson, L., and Dallwitz, M.J. 2003 onwards. Insects of Britain and Ireland: the families of Hemiptera. Version: 27th July 2019. delta-intkey.com’.
