The family Fulgoridae is a large group of hemipteran insects, especially abundant and diverse in the tropics, containing over 125 genera worldwide. They are mostly of moderate to large size, many with a superficial resemblance to Lepidoptera due to their brilliant and varied coloration. Various genera and species (especially the genera Fulgora and Pyrops) are sometimes referred to as lanternflies or lanthorn flies, though they do not emit light.
The head of some species is produced into a hollow process, resembling a snout, which is sometimes inflated and nearly as large as the body of the insect, sometimes elongated, narrow and apically upturned. It was believed, mainly on the authority of Maria Sibylla Merian, that this process, the so-called lantern, was luminous at night in the living insect. Carl Linnaeus adopted the statement without question and coined a number of specific names, such as laternaria, phosphorea and candelaria to illustrate the supposed fact, and thus propagated the myth.
However, 21st century molecular analysis has called into question the organization of Fulgoridae, and suggests that the Zanninae subfamily may not belong in Fulgoridae.[5][6]
^Metcalf, Zeno Payne (1947). "Fulgoridae". General catalogue of the Hemiptera, Fascicle IV Fulgoroidea, Part 9. Northampton, Massachusetts: Smith College.
^Lallemand, Victor (1963). "Revision des Fulgoridae (Homoptera). Deuxième Partie. Faunes Asiatique et Australienne". Mémoires de l'Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles de Belgique. 2nd series. 75: 1–99. and the material there cited.
^Liang, Ai-Ping (1995). "Taxonomic changes in oriental Fulgoroidea (Hemiptera: Fulgoromorpha)". Journal of the New York Entomological Society. 103 (2): 162–164. JSTOR25010151.
^Urban, Julie M.; Cryan, Jason R. (2009). "Entomologically famous, evolutionarily unexplored: the first phylogeny of the lanternfly family Fulgoridae (Insecta: Hemiptera: Fulgoroidea)". Molecular Phylogenetics & Evolution. 50 (3): 471–484. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2008.12.004. PMID19118634.
"North American Fulgoridae". College of Agriculture & Natural Resources, University of Delaware. Archived from the original on 2013-06-16. Retrieved 2014-01-22.
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