Family Fulgoridae
Fulgorid planthoppers
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The Family Fulgoridae contains the world's largest and most spectacular planthoppers. They have been given the inaccurate and misleading common name of Lantern flies. It is inaccurate because the name is based on an erroneous report that some species produce light when they mate. Australia's fulgorid fauna, although containing some of our largest fulgoroids many of which are brightly coloured, is relatively depauperate when compared with the SE Asian fauna.

Fulgorids usually have a process on the front of the head, although in most species this process forms no more than a small knob pressed down onto the vertex. In some forms, however, the process is large and obvious. The Australian genera Rentinus Metcalf (1947 : 109) and Eurinopsyche Kirkaldy (1906: 389) are notable for the apical prolongation of the head. Other Australian genera, such as Desudaba, Birdantis and Erilla do not have such a prolongation.
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Document 3204, submitted 02 March 2004
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© NSW Agriculture, 2004

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