Unknown Cixiid Planthopper damages Tomatoes in Arizona

bugman

September 17th, 2010 at 8:16 am

Categories

Aphids, Scale Insects, Leafhoppers, and Tree Hoppers

Stem damage by Cicada like bug
Location: Carefree, AZ
September 16, 2010 1:19 pm
Over the past two months I’ve noticed a white weblike substance deposited only on the stems of my Tomato, pepper and beans. Over time this has caused serious damage to the rest of the plant. Last week I noticed a tiny cicada like bug deposting this substance on one of the tomato plant stems.
Temp has been ~ 100-105 in the day, 75-85 at night.
Signature: Brian
I forgot to indicate that the bug is only about 1/8 – 3/16″ long

Unknown Cixiid Planthopper

Hi Brian,
We are quite puzzled by your situation. We found a photo posted to BugGuide that is identified as a Cixiid Planthopper in the genus Oecleus, and it was from Arizona, so we believe it is the same species as your critter, but alas, BugGuide has no relevant information posted on the genus, nor does BugGuide have any relevant information posted on the family Cixiidae.

Unknown Cixiid Planthopper

So though we feel we have identified the culprit to the genus level, we cannot provide a species and we are not sure how to advise you regarding dealing with the problem. Perhaps another pair of hours scouring the internet may turn up information we have missed. For now, we hope you accept the identification of Unknown Cixiid Planthopper.

Damage to Tomato Plant

Thank you for your quick reply. I’m a novice on this but the picture certainly looks very similar, if not the same. I did some more research on the web and located Tom Murray’s page http://www.pbase.com/tmurray74/planthoppers_family_cixiidae that also has pictures of the Cixius nymphs. I’ve been seeing what i thought were white flies on the tomatoes but it seemed a bit late in the year for them. While it will be difficult for me to get a good picture of them, at this time i’m assuming they are the nymphs. Does anyone in your team know what the white substance might be that is being secreted?
Cheers,
Brian