ENY 3005 Family Identification

Order Homoptera Pronunciation: ho-MOP-ter-ra Common names: cicadas, leafhoppers, aphids, scales, etc.

Identifying characteristics for the order Homoptera include:

• Front wings membranous or thickened, of one texture for their entire length.
• Wings usually folded rooflike over the abdomen.
• Mouth parts sucking and arising from middle or back of head.
• Antennae range from short and bristlelike to long and filiform.

Order Homoptera

• Suborder Auchenorrhyncha -- aucheno - neck, throat, rhyncha - snout, beak
• Superfamily Cicadoidea
• Family Cicadidae -- cicadas, "locusts"
• Family Membracidae -- treehoppers
• Family Cercopidae -- spittlebugs
• Family Cicadellidae -- leafhoppers
• Superfamily Fulgoroidea -- planthoppers
• Family Delphacidae -- delphacid planthoppers
• Family Dictyopharidae -- dictyopharid planthoppers
• Family Flatidae -- flatid planthoppers
• Family Acanaloniidae -- acanaloniid planthoppers
• Suborder Sternorrhyncha -- sterno - breast, rhyncha - snout, beak
• Superfamily Psylloidea -- psyllids
• Family Psyllidae -- Asiatic citrus psyllid
• Superfamily Aleyrodoidea -- whiteflies
• Superfamily Aphidoidea -- aphids and phylloxerans
• Family Aphididae -- aphids (= "plant lice").
• Superfamily Coccoidea -- scale insects and mealybugs.
• Family Coccidae -- soft, wax, and tortoise scales
• Family Pseudococcidae -- mealybugs
• Family Margarodidae -- giant coccids, ground pearls, cottony cushion scale
• Family Diaspididae -- armored scales

• Pages 128-139 and plate 4 in D. J. Borror and R. E. White. 1970. A Field Guide to the Insects. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.
• Pages 156-174 [as suborder of Hemiptera] in R. G. Bland and H. E. Jaques. 1978. How to Know the Insects, 3rd ed. Dubuque, Iowa: Wm. C. Brown Co. 409 p.
• Page 312 in D. J. Borror, C. A. Triplehorn, and N. F. Johnson. 1989. An Introduction to the Study of Insects, 6th ed. Philadelphia: Saunders College Publishing. 875 p.
• Pages 412-435 [as suborder of Hemiptera] in H. V. Daly, J. T. Doyen, and A. H. Purcell III. 1998. Introduction to Insect Biology and Diversity, 2nd ed. Oxford University Press. 680 p.

• University of Delaware Insect Database
• Hemiptera -- Gordon's Insect World [Includes Homoptera as a suborder of Hemiptera]