The phylogeny and revised classification of Machaerotidae, the tube-making spittlebugs (Hemiptera: Auchenorrhyncha: Cercopoidea)

Machaerotidae, with approximately 115 described species in 29 genera, is one of the five spittlebug families within the superfamily Cercopoidea (Hemiptera: Auchenorrhyncha: Cicadomorpha) (along with Cercopidae, Aphrophoridae, Epipygidae, and Clastopteridae). While spittlebugs are best known for the frothy mass produced by their nymphs, species of Machaerotidae produce hard, calcareous tubes in which they dwell. There has been little systematic research on the family, with Maa's (1963) "A Review of the Machaerotidae" being the most comprehensive to date, in which a generic level "probable family tree" was proposed based on morphological characters. More recently, in a molecular phylogenetic investigation of family-level relationships within Cercopoidea, Cryan and Svenson (2010) included 12 exemplars of Machaerotidae which were placed as a monophyletic lineage arising from the most basal node of the cercopoid phylogeny as the sister-group to all other spittlebugs, but their placement received low statistical support. The present study investigates the phylogeny of the family Machaerotidae with the specific aims of: (1) testing the monophyly of, and relationships among, the currently recognized subfamilies and tribes; (2) determining the phylogenetic placement of two newly described genera; and (3) revising the classification of the Machaerotidae based the molecular phylogeny.