Synonyms and other taxonomic changes
Coelidia olitoria (Say 1830)
Identification
Adult: variably light brown to grayish or bluish, sometimes yellowish or brownish-yellow throughout
adults
Females of the typical subspecies always have pale wing bands, while males are a chocolate to rusty brown without pale markings. But in the southern and Atlantic seaboard subspecies floridana, in which the wings are orange, females have the bands only faintly indicated if at all. -- Andy Hamilton, 24.xii.2007
nymphs
Remarks
J. o. olitoria is a vector of the disease strawberry pallidosis.
The form "borealis" is intermediate between J. o. olitoria. [Andy Hamilton]
This species is somewhat of a slight taxonomic nightmare. The status of the subspecies and various synonyms under J. olitoria has fluctuated greatly over the past several decades. Recently Nielson et al. (2014) reinstated floridana as a distinct species separate from olitoria, but it is not clear why this is the case and what characteristics he used to separate the two species; Nielson makes no note of why floridana was reinstated, and does not even include floridana in his revised key to species in the genus. C. Dietrich notes that males and females differ in coloration in the genus and there seems to be a great deal of variation in color pattern within one sex. Nielson (1979) showed that all the different color forms, originally thought to represent different species, instead were all the same species with the same male genitalia. Therefore, it seems that until a proper revision of the genus is published, everything should be placed under J. olitoria, and we can for now refer to J. olitoria as a species with a great deal of variation in both color and pattern (and therefore it is not worth trying to separate to subspecies due to the variation). [Kyle Kittelberger]