Machaerotidae are a family of bugs in the superfamily Cercopoidea which were formerly placed within Cercopidae. They are sometimes called tube-forming spittle-bugs as the nymphs form a calcareous tube within which they live. These bugs are mainly found in the Old Worldtropics. The adults of many genera have a long, free and spine-like process originating from the scutellum and thus superficially similar to the tree-hoppers, Membracidae. The tegmenorforewing, like typical bugs of the suborderHeteroptera, always has a distinct, membranous apical area.
Like other cercopoids, these are xylem-sap feeders.[1] The nymph extracts calcium from the xylem fluid and constructs a calcareous tube from Malphigian gland secretions.[2] They typically feed on woody dicots and immerse themselves in a rather clear fluid excretion inside the tube. The tubes strongly resemble the shells of certain serpulidsea wormsorhelicoid land snails and contain no less than 75% calcium carbonate. This habit is quite uncommon in the classInsecta and markedly different from that of typical spittlebugs, which make and live in a froth mass.[3] Machaerotids produce foam only when they emerge from the tube to moult. There are about 115 species in 31 genera placed in 4 tribes. The majority of species are found in Southeast Asia with a small number in Africa. They were traditionally separated into two subfamilies; Machaerotinae which have the scutellar spine, and Enderleiniinae which lack it. A third subfamily, also lacking the spine, Apomachaerotinae, was recognized in 2014. The scutellum has a "tail" or appears raised towards the posterior end.[4]
^Rakitov, Roman A. (2002). "Structure and Function of the Malpighian Tubules, and Related Behaviors in Juvenile Cicadas: Evidence of Homology with Spittlebugs (Hemiptera: Cicadoidea & Cercopoidea)". Zoologischer Anzeiger - A Journal of Comparative Zoology. 241 (2): 117–130. doi:10.1078/0044-5231-00025.
^ abBell, Adam J.; Svenson, Gavin J.; Cryan, Jason R. (2014). "The phylogeny and revised classification of Machaerotidae, the tube-making spittlebugs (Hemiptera: Auchenorrhyncha: Cercopoidea): Phylogeny and classification of Machaerotidae". Systematic Entomology. 39 (3): 474–485. doi:10.1111/syen.12066.
^Cryan, Jason R. (2005). "Molecular phylogeny of Cicadomorpha (Insecta: Hemiptera: Cicadoidea, Cercopoidea and Membracoidea): Adding evidence to the controversy". Systematic Entomology. 30 (4): 563–574. doi:10.1111/j.1365-3113.2004.00285.x.
