The Auchenorrhyncha suborder of the

Hemiptera Hemiptera (; ) is an order of insects, commonly called true bugs, comprising over 80,000 species within groups such as the cicadas, aphids, planthoppers, leafhoppers, assassin bugs, bed bugs, and shield bugs. They range in size from to arou ...

contains most of the familiar members of what was called the "Homoptera" – groups such as

cicada The cicadas () are a superfamily, the Cicadoidea, of insects in the order Hemiptera (true bugs). They are in the suborder Auchenorrhyncha, along with smaller jumping bugs such as leafhoppers and froghoppers. The superfamily is divided into tw ...

leafhopper A leafhopper is the common name for any species from the family Cicadellidae. These minute insects, colloquially known as hoppers, are plant feeders that suck plant sap from grass, shrubs, or trees. Their hind legs are modified for jumping, and ...

s, treehoppers,

planthopper A planthopper is any insect in the infraorder Fulgoromorpha, in the suborder Auchenorrhyncha, a group exceeding 12,500 described species worldwide. The name comes from their remarkable resemblance to leaves and other plants of their environmen ...

s, and

spittlebug The Aphrophoridae or spittlebugs are a family of insects belonging to the order Hemiptera. There are at least 160 genera and 990 described species in Aphrophoridae. European genera * '' Aphrophora'' Germar 1821 * '' Lepyronia'' Amyot & Servil ...

s. The

aphid Aphids are small sap-sucking insects and members of the superfamily Aphidoidea. Common names include greenfly and blackfly, although individuals within a species can vary widely in color. The group includes the fluffy white woolly aphids. A t ...

s and

scale insect Scale insects are small insects of the order Hemiptera, suborder Sternorrhyncha. Of dramatically variable appearance and extreme sexual dimorphism, they comprise the infraorder Coccomorpha which is considered a more convenient grouping than th ...

s are the other well-known "Homoptera", and they are in the suborder Sternorrhyncha. Distributed worldwide, all members of this group are plant-feeders, and many are vectors of viral and fungal diseases of plants. It is also common for Auchenorrhyncha species to produce either audible sounds or substrate vibrations as a form of communication. Such calls range from vibrations inaudible to humans, to the calls of many species of

s that can be heard for hundreds of metres, at least. In season, they produce the most characteristic and ubiquitous noise of the bush.

Etymology

The word auchenorrhyncha is from the

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

αὐχήν, 'neck, throat' and ῥύγχος, 'snout'.

Classification

Debate and uncertainty as to whether the Auchenorrhyncha is a

monophyletic In cladistics for a group of organisms, monophyly is the condition of being a clade—that is, a group of taxa composed only of a common ancestor (or more precisely an ancestral population) and all of its lineal descendants. Monophyletic gr ...

group or not is ongoing; some authors, believing it was not, split it into two suborders, the Clypeorrhyncha (=

Cicadomorpha Cicadomorpha is an infraorder of the insect order Hemiptera which contains the cicadas, leafhoppers, treehoppers, and spittlebugs. There are approximately 35,000 described species worldwide. Distributed worldwide, all members of this group ar ...

) and the Archaeorrhyncha (= Fulgoromorpha). In the last 10 years, there has been evidence to support the monophyletic interpretation, and the most recent research indicates the Auchenorrhyncha are in fact a monophyletic lineage. A classification of the Auchenorrhyncha is:C. H. Dietrich in Resh, V. H. & Carde, R. T. (Eds.) 2003 Encyclopedia of Insects. Academic Press . * Infraorder Cicadomorpha (Clypeorrhyncha, Clypeata) ** Superfamily Cercopoidea (

froghopper The froghoppers, or the superfamily Cercopoidea, are a group of hemipteran insects in the suborder Auchenorrhyncha. Adults are capable of jumping many times their height and length, giving the group their common name, but they are best known ...

s) ***

Aphrophoridae The Aphrophoridae or spittlebugs are a family of insects belonging to the order Hemiptera. There are at least 160 genera and 990 described species in Aphrophoridae. European genera * ''Aphrophora'' Germar 1821 * '' Lepyronia'' Amyot & Servill ...

***

Cercopidae Cercopidae are the largest family of Cercopoidea, a xylem-feeding insect group, commonly called froghoppers or spittlebugs. They belong to the hemipteran suborder Auchenorrhyncha. Genera A-C *'' Abidama'' *'' Aeneolamia'' *†'' Allocerc ...

*** Clastopteridae *** Epipygidae *** Machaerotidae ** Superfamily Cicadoidea (cicadas) ***

Cicadidae Cicadidae, the true cicadas, is the largest family of cicadas, with more than 3,200 species worldwide. The oldest known definitive fossils are from the Paleocene, a nymph from the Cretaceous Burmese amber has been attributed to the family, but ...

(Platypediidae, Plautillidae, Tettigadidae, Tibicinidae) *** Tettigarctidae (hairy cicadas) **Superfamily Membracoidea (Cicadelloidea) *** Aetalionidae ( Biturritiidae) *** Cicadellidae ( Eurymelidae, Hylicidae, Ledridae, Ulopidae, leafhoppers) ***

Melizoderidae Melizoderidae is a family of tree-hoppers restricted to South America with only two genera, ''Melizoderes'' and ''Llanquihuea''. The nymphs of melizoderids have the tergum of the 9th segment concealing the anal opening from above. The frontoclype ...

*** Membracidae (Nicomiidae, treehoppers) ***

Myerslopiidae Myerslopiidae is a family of tree-hoppers which consist of about 20 species in three genera with a distribution limited to New Zealand and Chile. Adult hoppers have a strongly sclerotized body with elytra-like tegmina meeting along the median. Th ...

(Cicadellidae, in part) *Infraorder Fulgoromorpha (Archaeorrhyncha,

s) **Superfamily Fulgoroidea ***

Acanaloniidae Acanaloniidae is a family of planthoppers. It is sometimes treated as a subfamily of Issidae Issidae is a family of planthoppers described by Spinola in 1839, belonging to the order Hemiptera, suborder Auchenorrhyncha superfamily Fulgoroidea ...

*** Achilidae *** Achilixiidae *** Caliscelidae ***

Cixiidae The Cixiidae are a family of fulgoroid insects, one of many families commonly known as planthoppers, distributed worldwide and comprising more than 2,000 species from over 150 genera. The genera are placed into three subfamilies, Borystheninae ...

***

Delphacidae Delphacidae is a family of planthoppers containing about 2000 species, distributed worldwide. Delphacids are separated from other "hoppers" by the prominent spur on the tibia of the hindleg. Diet and Pest species All species are phytophagous, m ...

*** Derbidae ***

Dictyopharidae Dictyopharidae is a family of planthoppers, related to the Fulgoridae. The family comprises nearly 760 species in more than 150 genera which are grouped into two subfamilies, Dictyopharinae and Orgeriinae. Description Like all other fulgoroid ...

*** Eurybrachyidae *** Flatidae ***

Fulgoridae The family Fulgoridae is a large group of hemipteran insects, especially abundant and diverse in the tropics, containing over 125 genera worldwide. They are mostly of moderate to large size, many with a superficial resemblance to Lepidoptera due t ...

( lanternflies) *** Gengidae *** Hypochthonellidae *** Issidae *** Kinnaridae ***

Lophopidae Lophopidae is a family of fulgoroid plant-hoppers with most species found in tropical South America and Asia (two genera occur in Africa). Characteristics Most members of the family are characterized by the face being longer than wide with at l ...

*** Meenoplidae *** Nogodinidae ***

Ricaniidae Ricaniidae is a family of planthopper insects, containing over 400 species worldwide. The highest diversity is in tropical Africa and Asia and in Australia, with a few species occurring in the Palearctic and Neotropical realms. It is one of the s ...

*** Tettigometridae ***

Tropiduchidae Tropiduchidae is a family of planthoppers in the order Hemiptera. There are at least 160 genera and 600 described species In biology, a species is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as ...

Notes

External links

Bibliography of the Auchenorrhyncha of Central Europe

* ttp://www.zikaden.uni-oldenburg.de/Fotoatlas%20englisch.htm Photographic Atlas of the Planthoppers and Leafhoppers of Germany
Photographs of the Auchenorrhyncha of North and South America
{{Authority control Hemiptera Insect suborders Permian insects Cisuralian animals Cisuralian animals of North America Cisuralian first appearances Extant Permian first appearances Hemiptera of North America Paleozoic insects of Asia Paleozoic insects of North America