Family: Cicadellidae
Subfamily: Deltocephalinae
Length: typically 6.2-6.5 mm
Menosoma cincta is a distinctive species, with most of the front half of the insect light-colored and most of the rear half dark. There is a dark hatch-mark near each wing base.
The wing venation may be reddish, especially toward the front of the insect. Some of the cells toward the rear of the wings are a translucent yellowish color.
Left: The eyes are reddish and the small, pearly ocelli are very close to the eyes.
Menosoma cincta is not an especially scarce species, so it is interesting to note that it was not described until 1898. It is one of two Nearctic species in the genus.
Ball (1931) reported that Menosoma was primarily a subtropical genus, and that Menosoma cincta ranges widely east of the Rocky Mountains, and south to South America. At least two provinces are home to the species, Ontario and Quebec, and states with records of Mensoma cincta range from Massachusetts to Florida and west to Alabama and Oklahoma.
Right: This Menosoma cincta has a blue-white cast at the center of the wings. This is because of a waxy deposit there called brochosomes. The leafhoppers use their legs to spread the brochosomes over their wings, offering protection against desiccation, parasites, fungi, and sticky liquids.
Insects of West Virginia
