Aetalionid Treehopper

Description:

I thought when I found this it was one of the Fulgoroidea families, but it's not. It is 1 cm long, very colorful with green, yellow, red and black. It has 2 oscelli, lacks the "Y vein" on the upper wings (which Fulgorids have), has transverse metacoxae and two rows of minuscule spines on the 3rd pair of tibiae (they are not even visible without magnification). This is a female (last picture with ovipositor visible). It turns out that it is a Treehopper. The Superfamily Membracoida contains 3 families: Membracidae, Aetalionidae and Melizoderidae: (http://treehoppers.insectmuseum.org/publ...). The Aetalionids differ from the Membracids in that the scutellum is completely exposed (no overgrowth of the pronotum). This one has not been reported from Chiapas yet. It might be a variant of A. quadratum reported from Central Mexico in 2014 (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations...).

Habitat:

Garden lights, semi-rural residential area, San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico, 2,200 meters.

Notes:

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations... https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/326316-... https://bugguide.net/node/view/745840/bg... http://www.pybio.org/22769/aetalionidae/... http://treehoppers.insectmuseum.org/publ... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aetalionid... https://www.naturalista.mx/taxa/326308-A... http://treehoppers.insectmuseum.org/publ... http://biblio.naturalsciences.be/rbins-p... https://eol.org/pages/3742241/overview http://www2.nrm.se/en/homoptera_nrm/d/ae... http://fossilworks.org/?a=taxonInfo&... Even though the Membracoida are believed to be new world in origin, the oldest fossil is an Aetalionid is from the Oligocene of Germany.