Laberiini, a new tribe of Tropiduchidae planthoppers from Madagascar (Hemiptera: Fulgoroidea)

Abstract

The tropiduchid monotypic genus Laberia Stål, 1866, endemic to Madagascar, is placed in a new tribe of its own Laberiini trib. nov. The tribe is placed in the subfamily Elicinae, and can be distinguished from other representatives of the subfamily by the unique combination of morphological characters of the head, tegmina, legs and genital structures. The genus Laberia and its only species Laberia palliata Stål, 1866 are redescribed, chresonymy is presented and nomenclatorial questions are clarified. Distributional data from Madagascar and doubtful presence of the taxon in Mauritius are discussed. Taxonomic content of Elicinae is briefly discussed.

Phylogeny and diversification of planthoppers (Hemiptera: Fulgoromorpha) based on a comprehensive molecular dataset and large taxon sampling

“…With our available sampling, the family Tropiduchidae appears as a moderately supported clade sister to the rest of the 'higher' Fulgoroidea families ( tribes (four of them fossils) are described within Tropiduchidae (Stroiński et al, 2022), which are represented by only 10 taxa in the present dataset: how relevant is the current Tropiduchidae (Fennah, 1982, Gnezdilov, 2013) classification remains to be assessed. Approaching the family with only one species and mitogenomic data only probably explains its unusual branching just after Meenoplidae in Michalik et al (2023).…”

Phylogenomics resolves the relationship and the evolutionary history of planthoppers (Insecta: Hemiptera: Fulgoromorpha)

“…However, the sampling remains scarce within Tropiduchidae. We only included less than one-third of established tribes (five out of ~25) in Tropiduchidae, missing some of those with distinct morphology and ecological adaptations (Fennah, 1982;Gnezdilov et al, 2016;Gnezdilov and Bourgoin, 2015;Stroiński et al, 2022;Wang et al, 2014). Their future characterization of species from these missing tribes may challenge the monophyly of this family (Wang et al, 2017).…”