Machaerotidae
| Machaerotidae | |
|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Hemiptera |
| Suborder: | Auchenorrhyncha |
| Infraorder: | Cicadomorpha |
| Superfamily: | Cercopoidea |
| Family: | Machaerotidae Stål, 1866 |
The Machaerotidae (Hemiptera: Cercopoidea) comprise a small, distinct and interesting group of insects mainly inhabiting the Old World tropics. The adult often has a long, free and spine-like process originating at the scutellum and is thus superficially similar to the Membracidae. Its tegmen or forewing, like typical bugs of the suborder Heteroptera, always has a distinct, membranous apical area. The nymph constructs a calcareous tube on some woody dicotyledons and immerses itself in a rather clear fluid excretion inside the tube. The tube strongly resembles the shell of certain serpulid sea worms or helicoid land snails and contain no less than 75% calcium carbonate. This habit is quite uncommon in the class Insecta and markedly different from that of typical cercopoids or spittlebugs, which make and live in a froth mass either below or above ground.[1]
References
- ↑ Maa, T.C. (1963) A Review of the Machaerotidae (Hemiptera: Cercopoidea). Pacific Insects Monograph, 5, 1–166.