Caution and Credits

These keys will allow identifications of the Auchenorrhyncha (Hemiptera) known to occur in Australia, New Zealand and neighbouring areas to the taxonomic level of Superfamily, Family, Subfamily or Tribe, depending on the currently accepted classification for each group. Keys to genera are provided for many of the groups. A checklist of known species, in their most recently accepted taxonomic combination, is provided for each group for the Australian, New Zealand, Indonesian and New Guinean faunas. Keys to the leafhoppers of New Zealand by Lariviere and Fletcher (2004) are provided on the NZAC site and links to these are provided at the appropriate locations here.

Photographic images are provided for many species in each group.

The Australasian Auchenorrhyncha fauna in many families has been poorly studied and identification to species in many Families is not possible without extensive additional revisionary work. The checklists provided are based on current published literature and almost certainly contain errors of combination and synonymies that will only be determined through further taxonomic research. There is also a significant portion of the Australian Auchenorhyncha fauna still undescribed.

AFD

These buttons can be found throughout this key and provide a link to ABRS Fauna Online (Australian Faunal Directory, AFD) on the website of the Australian Department of the Environment and Heritage (DEH). The modules on Fulgoromorpha and Cicadomorpha (Membracoidea and Cercopoidea) were prepared by the principal author of these keys, M.J. Fletcher, and Sally Watson funded by the Australian Biological Resources Study (ABRS), a division of DEH. The modules on Cicadoidea were prepared by Max Moulds.

PLEASE NOTE: It is a condition for the issue of collecting permits or of loans from collections in Australia and New Zealand that holotype specimens of new species from those two countries be deposited in institutions in those countries. Deposition of paratype material is subject to negotation with the curators of the lending institutions.

Suggestions, criticisms and comment on this website, or Australian Auchenorrhyncha specimens (excluding cicadas) for identification, may be sent to the author:

Dr M.J. Fletcher
Orange Agricultural Institute,
Forest Road,
Orange NSW 2800

A charge to cover the cost of the identification may apply.