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HOMOPTERA [Latest Classification]

HOMOPTERA = Photos-1

Homoptera are sometimes considered as a suborder of order Hemiptera; morphological studies and DNA analyses indicate that the order is paraphyletic. It is split into the suborders Sternorrhyncha, Auchenorrhyncha, and Coleorrhyncha, although there is some doubt about the validity of Auchenorrhyncha.

Included are aphids, leafhoppers, cicadas, etc. They have sucking mouthparts.

Homoptera may be either winged or wingless and they all have sucking mouthparts. Winged species hold their membranous wings roof-like over the body. Included are the cicadas and leafhoppers. Aphids are small insects that bear a pair of projections called cornicles on the 5th or 6th abdominal segment. Scale insects are apterous and live on plant branches, roots and leaves. They have slow movements if any after beginning to feed. Their body is covered with a hard or waxy substance. Mealybugs are usually apterous; white or gray in color; covered with a waxy secretion. Their movements are extremely slow.

All Homoptera phytophagous, their being no predatory species known. The mouthparts are in the form of a beak designed for piercing and sucking that arises from the back part of the head. Leafhoppers and aphids appear in different shapes and sizes. Some species in this order give birth to living young.

Metamorphosis is gradual but can be modified as in the whiteflies. The size of these insects ranges from microscopic to about 2 cm.

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References: Please refer to <biology.ref.htm>, [Additional references may be found at: MELVYL Library]

Bland, R. G. and H. E. Jaques. 1978. How to Know the Insects, 3rd ed. Dubuque, Iowa: Wm. C. Brown Co. 409 p.

Borror, D. J. and R. E. White. 1970. A Field Guide to the Insects. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.

Borror, D. J., C. A. Triplehorn, and N. F. Johnson. 1989. An Introduction to the Study of Insects, 6th ed. Philadelphia: Saunders College Publishing. 875 p.

Daly, H. V., J. T. Doyen, and A. H. Purcell III. 1998. Introduction to Insect Biology and Diversity, 2nd ed. Oxford University Press. 680 p.

Dudley, R. 2002. The biomechanics of insect flight: Form, function, evolution. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. p. 184.

von Dohlen, C.D. and Moran, N.A. 1995. "Molecular phylogeny of the Homoptera: a paraphyletic taxon", Journal of Molecular Evolution. August 41(2): 211–223.