| Delphacid planthoppers (Homoptera: Fulgoroidea), a group of insects containing numerous agricultural pests, are divided into eleven subfamilies and tribes based upon morphological characteristics. Recent advances in molecular biology have been used to test theories of evolutionary relationships in a wide variety of organisms. This study is the first to address delphacid phylogeny from a molecular perspective. The 18S rDNA gene was amplified, cloned, sequenced, and aligned for representative members of three delphacid subfamilies. The phylogenetic tree derived from molecular data primarily agreed with the morphology based tree; the notable exception is the position of Prokelisia crocea . |
