The planthopper family Dictyopharidae consists of approximately 489 species in 119 genera worldwide. Traditionally, the family includes 2 subfamilies and four tribes: the Orgeriinae with two tribes, the Orgeriini (31 gen., 108 sp., Mediterranean, Palearctic and North American) and the Lyncidini (5 gen., 8 sp., African), and the Dictyopharinae with two tribes, Cladodipterini (3 gen., 14 sp., Central and South American) and Dictyopharini (74 gen., 350 sp., Cosmopolitan). These designations are primarily based on overall morphological similarities with few inferences of primitive or advanced characters. Emeljanov further divided the Dictyopharini into 9 tribes based on fossil evidence, though many modern genera were not treated in his tribal designations. Currently, cladistic analyses of the phylogenetic relationships among higher taxa are lacking, and the classification remains unclear. Here we present a portion of an ongoing research project on the phylogeny of the Dictyopharidae. Included are the preliminary results of morphological maximum parsimony analyses (using PAUP*, version 4.0b1) of relationships among the higher taxa of the Dictyopharidae. Our analyses includes representatives of all 4 traditional tribes, as well as representatives of 7 of 8 of Emelyanov’s tribes, using the sister taxon Fulgoridae as an outgroup. The results will be used as a guideline in determining phylogenetic and taxonomic relationships between the genera of the traditional tribe Dictyopharini (s.l.), with emphasis on New World Groups.