Higher-level phylogeny and divergence dates of the spittlebug superfamily Cercopoidea (Hemiptera: Auchenorrhyncha)

The hemipteran superfamily Cercopoidea (spittlebugs and froghoppers) includes approximately 350 genera in five described families, but several different classification schemes have been proposed for this important herbivore group, and the phylogeny of the superfamily has never before been investigated. Presented here are the results of the first-ever phylogenetic study of the spittlebugs; the analysis includes exemplars of 109 cercopoid species representing all five described families, sequenced for six DNA loci, and is designed to not only resolve the higher-level relationships among the described spittlebug families, but also to determine the approximate divergence dates of the major cercopoid lineages.