Eurybrachidae (sometimes misspelled "Eurybrachyidae" or "Eurybrachiidae") is a small

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

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 environment ...

s with species occurring in parts of

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

and

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

. They are remarkable for the sophistication of their

automimicry In zoology, automimicry, Browerian mimicry, or intraspecific mimicry, is a form of mimicry in which the same species of animal is imitated. There are two different forms. In one form, first described by Lincoln Brower in 1967, weakly-defended m ...

Etymology

The family name is derived from the Greek () and (), meaning "broad" and "short". This presumably reflects the shape of adults of representative species.

Description

Eurybrachidae generally resemble related families of

s in the Fulgoromorpha. They are moderate-sized insects, generally 1 to 3 cm long when mature, but they are unobtrusive and camouflaged with brown, grey or green blotches, mimicking foliage, bark or lichens. Their mottled

camouflage Camouflage is the use of any combination of materials, coloration, or illumination for concealment, either by making animals or objects hard to see, or by disguising them as something else. Examples include the leopard's spotted coat, the ...

patterns are most intense on the large forewings of many species, hiding the broad and often aposematically colourful abdomen. The frons of the head is characteristic, being broader than it is long. File:Paropioxys jucundus dorsal.jpg , '' Paropioxys jucundus''
dorsal view File:Paropioxys jucundus ventral.jpg , '' Paropioxys jucundus''
ventral view File:Species of Eurybrachidae — John Tann 003.jpg, Australian Eurybrachid, showing broad

frons Insect morphology is the study and description of the physical form of insects. The terminology used to describe insects is similar to that used for other arthropods due to their shared evolutionary history. Three physical features separate insec ...

Biology

Lappies Unidentified Eurybrachyidae Nymph 1

Lappies Unidentified Eurybrachyidae Nymph 3

Eurybrachidae generally are sap-suckers of trees or shrubs. In Australia, the genus '' Platybrachys'' associates with ''

Eucalyptus ''Eucalyptus'' () is a genus of over seven hundred species of flowering trees, shrubs or mallees in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. Along with several other genera in the tribe Eucalypteae, including '' Corymbia'', they are commonly known as euca ...

'' trees, while the genera '' Olonia'' and '' Dardus'' associate with ''

Acacia ''Acacia'', commonly known as the wattles or acacias, is a large genus of shrubs and trees in the subfamily Mimosoideae of the pea family Fabaceae. Initially, it comprised a group of plant species native to Africa and Australasia. The genus na ...

''. Each eurybrachid female is likely to have an adult lifespan of some months, during which she lays several clutches of eggs. Females of many species deposit the eggs in clusters on bark or the undersides of leaves, placed in a fingerprint sized patch of white waxy material, covered by a white capsule that protects them from many predators. However, small

parasitoid wasp Parasitoid wasps are a large group of hymenopteran superfamilies, with all but the wood wasps (Orussoidea) being in the wasp-waisted Apocrita. As parasitoids, they lay their eggs on or in the bodies of other arthropods, sooner or later causin ...

s are adapted to attack the eggs by piercing the capsules with their

ovipositor The ovipositor is a tube-like organ used by some animals, especially insects, for the laying of eggs. In insects, an ovipositor consists of a maximum of three pairs of appendages. The details and morphology of the ovipositor vary, but typical ...

s, and some species of beetles, such as some

Coccinellidae Coccinellidae () is a widespread family of small beetles ranging in size from . They are commonly known as ladybugs in North America and ladybirds in Great Britain. Some entomologists prefer the names ladybird beetles or lady beetles as they ...

will chew through the capsule and eat the eggs if they find a clutch. The nymphs, being less agile than the adults, rely on mimicry, camouflage for direct protection. However, they also secrete honeydew that attracts ants. The ants in turn protect them from wide varieties of predators and parasitoids. The southeast Asian genus ''

Ancyra Ankara ( , ; ), historically known as Ancyra and Angora, is the list of national capitals, capital of Turkey. Located in the Central Anatolia Region, central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5.1 million in its urban center ...

'' is well known for the adult insects having a pair of prolonged filaments at the tips of the forewings; the wings are folded back when the insect is not in flight, so that the tips with their attached filaments are at the posterior end. The tips arise near a pair of small glossy spots; this creates the impression of a pair of antennae, with corresponding "eyes", a remarkable example of

. The "false head" effect is further reinforced by the bugs' habit of walking backwards when it detects movement nearby, so as to misdirect predators to strike at its rear, rather than at its actual head, and to strike in the anticipated direction of leaping, whereas the insect jumps in the opposite direction, away from the false head and initial direction of movement. Other genera, including many African, Asian, and

Australasia Australasia is a region that comprises Australia, New Zealand and some neighbouring islands in the Pacific Ocean. The term is used in a number of different contexts, including geopolitically, physiogeographically, philologically, and ecologica ...

n species, have closely analogous habits, but the automimicry occurs in the wingless

nymphs A nymph ( grc, νύμφη, nýmphē, el, script=Latn, nímfi, label=Modern Greek; , ) in ancient Greek folklore is a minor female nature deity. Different from Greek goddesses, nymphs are generally regarded as personifications of nature, are typ ...

instead of the winged adults. The pseudo-antennae of such nymphs are attached to the sub-posterior dorsal surface of the abdomen of the wingtips. The structure is visible in some of the illustrations in this article. The adults lack the pseudo-antennae, as may be seen for example for example in the illustration of ''Paropioxys jucundus''. When the nymphs with the posterior pseudo-antennae are disturbed they wave them and walk backwards towards the threat in much the same way as the adults of Asiatic species that have filaments on their wingtips. Such nymphs similarly leap in misleading directions when sufficiently alarmed. However, not all species are equipped for that characteristic automimicry; in some genera, such as '' Eurybrachys'', whether this genus is correctly taxonomically assigned or otherwise, the nymphs bear caudal tufts of bristles such as one typically finds in other families of the Fulgoroidea.

Taxonomy

The oldest known Eurybrachid is from the middle Eocene of Messel. The fossil genus ''Amalaberga'' is not placeable within the modern classification in two subfamilies Platybrachinae and Eurybrachinae.FLOW database
/ref> * Unplaced genera ** ''

Amalaberga Amalaberga was the daughter of Amalafrida, daughter of Theodemir, king of the Ostrogoths. Her father is unknown, her uncle was Theodoric the Great. Around 510, she was married to Hermanfrid, son of the Thuringian ruler Bisinus and his Lombar ...

'' ** '' Gastererion''

Platybrachinae

* Tribe Ancyrini Schmidt, E., 1908 ** ''

'' White, A., 1845 ** '' Gastererion'' Perroud & Montrouzier, 1864 * Tribe Dardini Schmidt, E., 1908 ** '' Dardus'' Stål, 1859 ** '' Gelastopsis'' Kirkaldy, 1906 ** '' Metoponitys'' Karsch, 1890 ** '' Ricanocephalus'' Melichar, 1898 * Tribe Platybrachini Schmidt, E., 1908 ** '' Aspidonitys'' Karsch, 1895 ** '' Euronotobrachys'' Kirkaldy, 1906 ** '' Fletcherobrachys'' Constant, 2006 ** ''

Gedrosia Gedrosia (; el, Γεδρωσία) is the Hellenization, Hellenized name of the part of coastal Balochistan that roughly corresponds to today's Makran. In books about Alexander the Great and his Diadochi, successors, the area referred to as Gedro ...

'' Stål, 1862 ** '' Hackerobrachys'' Constant, 2006 ** '' Kirkaldybrachys'' Constant, 2006 ** '' Loisobrachys'' Constant, 2008 ** '' Maeniana'' Metcalf, 1952 ** '' Mesonitys'' Schmidt, E., 1908 ** '' Neoplatybrachys'' Lallemand, 1950 ** '' Nirus'' Jacobi, 1928 ** '' Olonia'' Stål, 1862 ** '' Platybrachys'' Stål, 1859 ** '' Stalobrachys'' Constant, 2018 ** '' Usambrachys'' Constant, 2005

Eurybrachinae

Authority: Stål, 1862 * tribe Eurybrachini Stål, 1862 – India,

Indochina Mainland Southeast Asia, also known as the Indochinese Peninsula or Indochina, is the continental portion of Southeast Asia. It lies east of the Indian subcontinent and south of Mainland China and is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the west an ...

Malesia Malesia is a biogeographical region straddling the Equator and the boundaries of the Indomalayan and Australasian realms, and also a phytogeographical floristic region in the Paleotropical Kingdom. It has been given different definitions. The ...

** '' Eurybrachys'' Guérin-Méneville, 1834 - type genus ** '' Messena'' Stål, 1861 ** '' Nicidus'' Stål, 1858 ** ''

Purusha ''Purusha'' (' or ) is a complex concept whose meaning evolved in Vedic and Upanishadic times. Depending on source and historical timeline, it means the cosmic being or self, awareness, and universal principle.Karl Potter, Presuppositions of Indi ...

'' Distant, 1906 ** '' Thessitus'' Walker, 1862 * tribe Frutini Schmidt, 1908 – Malesia ** '' Chalia'' Walker, 1858 * tribe Loxocephalini Schmidt, 1908 – tropical Africa, India, China, Indochina ** '' Amychodes'' Karsch, 1895 ** '' Klapperibrachys'' Constant, 2006 ** '' Loxocephala'' Schaum, 1850 ** '' Macrobrachys'' Lallemand, 1950 ** '' Nesiana'' Metcalf, 1952 ** '' Nilgiribrachys'' Constant, 2007 ** '' Parancyra'' Synave, 1968 ** '' Paropioxys'' Karsch, 1890

Pest status

Most Eurybrachidae are not regarded as pests, but like many families of plant sucking Hemiptera, they do include some species of concern. For example, '' Eurybrachys tomentosa'' is regarded as a pest of tropical Asian forestry, causing damage in plantations of

sandalwood Sandalwood is a class of woods from trees in the genus ''Santalum''. The woods are heavy, yellow, and fine-grained, and, unlike many other aromatic woods, they retain their fragrance for decades. Sandalwood oil is extracted from the woods for us ...

and ''

Calotropis ''Calotropis'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Apocynaceae, first described as a genus in 1810. It is native to southern Asia and North Africa. They are commonly known as milkweeds because of the latex they produce. ''Calotropis'' ...

''.

References

External links

* *
Australian species review

Photo of African species in defensive pose
{{Taxonbar, from1=Q33136974, from2=Q3435208 Auchenorrhyncha families Fulgoromorpha