A data set comprising DNA sequences from 388 loci and >99,000 aligned nucleotide positions, generated using anchored hybrid enrichment, was used to estimate relationships among 138 leafhoppers and treehoppers representative of all major lineages of Membracoidea, the most diverse superfamily of hemipteran insects. Phylogenetic analysis of the concatenated nucleotide sequence data set using maximum likelihood produced a tree with most branches receiving high support. A separate coalescent gene tree analysis of the same data generally recovered the same strongly supported clades but was less well resolved overall. Several nodes pertaining to relationships among leafhopper subfamilies currently recognized based on morphological criteria were separated by short internodes and received low support. Although various higher taxa were corroborated with improved branch support, relationships among some major lineages of Membracoidea are only somewhat more resolved than previously published phylogenies based on single gene regions or morphology. In agreement with previous studies, the present results indicate that leafhoppers (Cicadellidae) are paraphyletic with respect to the three recognized families of treehoppers (Aetalionidae, Melizoderidae, and Membracidae). Divergence time estimates indicate that most of the poorly resolved divergence events among major leafhopper lineages occurred during the lower to middle Cretaceous and that most modern leafhopper subfamilies, as well as the lineage comprising the three recognized families of treehoppers, also arose during the Cretaceous.

Wolfniana viridis sp. nov. is described and illustrated based on specimens collected in the municipality of Ipixuna (along Liberdade and Gregório rivers), state of Amazonas, Brazil. The new species can be distinguished from the type-species, W. limbatula (Osborn, 1926), by the color pattern which lacks conspicuous orange markings on head, pronotum, and forewing commissure; and aedeagal shaft with apex broadly expanded. Based on specimens of Rotigonalia concedula Melichar, 1926 and R. curvula Cavichioli, 2000, collected along with W. viridis, Rotigonalia Young, 1977 is firstly recorded from the state of Amazonas and R. concedula is firstly recorded from Brazil

Seven new South American species of Regalana DeLong & Freytag (Cicadellidae: Iassinae: Gyponini)

The hemipteran suborder Auchenorrhyncha is a highly diverse, ecologically and agriculturally important group of primarily phytophagous insects which has been a source of phylogenetic contention for many years. Here, we have used transcriptome sequencing to assemble 2139 orthologues from 84 auchenorrhynchan species representing 27 families; this is the largest and most taxonomically comprehensive phylogenetic dataset for this group to date. We used both maximum likelihood and multispecies coalescent analyses to reconstruct the evolutionary history in this group using amino acid, nucleotide, and degeneracy‐coded nucleotide orthologue data. Although many relationships at the superfamily level were consistent between analyses, several differing, highly supported topologies were recovered using different datasets and reconstruction methods, most notably the differential placement of Cercopoidea as sister to either Cicadoidea or Membracoidea. To further interrogate the recovered topologies, we explored the contribution of genes as partitioned by third‐codon‐position guanine‐cytosine (GC) content and heterogeneity. We found consistent support for several relationships, including Cercopoidea + Cicadoidea, most often in genes that would be expected to be enriched for the true species tree if recombination‐based dynamics in GC content have contributed to the observed GC heterogeneity. Our results provide a generally well‐supported framework for future studies of auchenorrhynchan phylogeny and suggest that transcriptome sequencing is likely to be a fruitful source of phylogenetic data for resolving its clades. However, we caution that future work should account for the potential effects of GC content heterogeneity on relationships recovered in this group.