[Book Review] Sanborn, A. F. 2014. Catalogue of the Cicadoidea (Hemiptera: Auchenorrhyncha)

Abstract

Sanborn, A. F. 2014. Catalogue of the Cicadoidea (Hemiptera: Auchenorrhyncha). Academic Press/Elsevier, London, UK. Hardcover, ISBN 978-0-12-416647-9. viii + 1001 pp. US $112.46.

All aspects of Sanborn’s “Catalogue of the Cicadoidea” affirm this is a labor of love—carefully prepared, beautifully presented, easy to read, and durably bound. Based on this massive compilation, the superfamily includes two extant families: Tettigarctidae (with only 2 species in the Australian genus Tettigarcta) and Cicadidae (with 3 subfamilies, 40 tribes, 412 genera, and more than 2,900 valid species). Cicadas are conspicuous components of natural environments the world over owing to their distinctive male courtship calls, relatively large size, and, in the United States, spectacular mass emergences of Magicicada. All cicadas feed on plants and, in depositing their eggs, females often injure the stems of various cultivated crops, shrubs, and trees. With subterranean nymphs and flying/singing adults, the fascinating life histories and great diversity among cicadas beg investigation. What better way to organize our knowledge of these insects than in a catalogue with taxa arranged based on phylogeny.

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