Cicadulina Explained

Cicadulina is a leafhopper genus in the tribe Macrostelini.

Cicadulina species are vectors of the maize streak virus, a disease which is a sporadic but severe in sub-Saharan Africa. The cause is a geminivirus which is persistently transmitted by Cicadulina leafhoppers.^[1] The disease is also transmitted to Urochloa panicoides, a fodder grass originating in Southern Africa.

The maize orange leafhopper Cicadulina bipunctata has been reported to induce gall-like structures on maize in Japan.^[2]

Notes and References

1. Electrical penetration graphs from Cicadulina spp. and the inoculation of a persistent virus into maize. F. M. Kimmins and N. A. Bosque-Perez, Proceedings of the 9th International Symposium on Insect-Plant Relationships, Series Entomologica, 1996, Volume 53, pages 46-49,
2. Recent Outbreaks of the Maize Orange Leafhopper Cicadulina bipunctata Inducing Gall-like Structures on Maize in Japan. Masaya Matsumura, Makoto Tokuda and Nobuyuki Endo, Galling Arthropods and Their Associates, 2006, pages 149-158,