Bug encounter in Bali, Indonesia
Location: Ubud, Bali, Indonesia
September 4, 2010 8:05 pm
I was really amazed when I saw this bug on the floor in my guest house. I just realised that right before this insect appeared I reset the counter from my camera. I made sure to take as many pictures as I could, and the next moment it jumped/flew away.
Looks like a really strange critter, didn’t find anybody from the local people to identify it. It was January this year in the wet season on the Indonesian Island Bali in the center of Ubud.
I was there for 3 months and never saw it again.
Signature: Leander
Planthopper Nymph
Hi Leander,
This is an immature Planthopper in the family Eurybrachyidae, known as an Eurybrachyid Planthopper. We have received numerous submissions from Australia, and you may see photographs of many species on the Insects and Spiders of Brisbane website. We suppose some of the Australian species may also be found in Indonesia.
Planthopper Nymph
¶ Posted 05 September 2010 § ‡ ° Leaf hopper love.
Location: Staten Island, NY
August 21, 2010 9:17 am
I thought you might be interested in these pics of mating leaf hoppers
Spuds
Mating Sharpshooters
Hi Spuds,
We believe this may be our first photo of mating Leafhoppers. Your Leafhoppers are Sharpshooters in the genus Graphocephala. They look like they might be Rhododendron Leafhoppers, Graphocephala fennahi, based on photos posted on BugGuide.
¶ Posted 21 August 2010 § ‡ ° Tagged: bug love bugs that hitch on my lawn mower
Location: East Tennessee (near Knoxville)
August 15, 2010 4:13 pm
Hi,
When I mow the lawn with an electric lawn mower, lots of these little dark bugs with red stripes like to ride along. The seem to be especially attracted to the cover of the battery compartment and can fly. I can’t find them on-line.
Thanks!
Carol
Two-Lined Spittlebugs
Hi Carol,
You have Two-Lined Spittlebugs, Prosapia bicincta, and we would bet our last dollar that you probably have masses of what looks like spittle on your tall grasses and other plants. These are the homes of the larva of the adult Two-Lined Spittlebugs that you have photographed. Once they mature, the winged adults become more mobile. BugGuide indicates: “In the immature (nymph) stage (surrounded by the “spittle” foam which protects them, and which they produce from juices they suck from the plant) they feed on centipedegrass, bermudagrass and other grasses, including occasionally corn. Adults feed on hollies – they feed on the underside of leaves, and damage shows up as pale mottling not usually visible from above.“
Two-Lined Spittlebugs on Lawnmower
¶ Posted 16 August 2010 § ‡ ° Mutualism: Ants & Leafhoppers!
Location: Cherokee County, North Carolina
August 8, 2010 9:08 am
I first spotted these guys early on in spring of this year. At first they were on only a few stems of one locust sapling, but now, when these photos were taken, they’ve expanded to about six other saplings near their original location.
Earlier on in the year they were ”farming” small aphids as well as these little leafhoppers, but the aphids seem to have disappeared over the following months, and it seems that they’re tending the leafhoppers exclusively now.
It’s amazing to see how well the ants tend these little creatures. They divide the young ones from the old ones, and place the young ones on the newer growth while keeping the old ones on the thicker growth from the year before. Occasionally I saw an ant feeding by licking droplets(honeydew I suppose) that were excreted from the leafhopper’s posterior.
The ants guarded their herds quite well, and attacked just about any creature that strayed onto their branches. I conducted a little ”experiment” and managed to remove one of the leafhoppers without one immediately noticing. When the ant returned to the leafhopper’s original resting place and found that it was missing, it frantically ran about the stem and combed each nearby leaf. After about five minutes it met up with two other ants and they too ran around for about five minutes before giving up(the missing leafhopper in question escaped from my hand before I managed to put it back, unless something eats it I suppose it may return to the tree).
The locust saplings also hosted some sort of tiny black ants, but my less-than-stellar camera couldn’t zoom in quite enough. The large ants never seemed to notice them, and they appeared to be feeding on bits of locust sap at the base of the green stems.
Hopefully these little guys stay around for some time, they’re quite interesting to watch. After seeing these I’ve searched some other groups of locust saplings in the area, but this one small cluster seems to be the only one hosting these creatures.
Jacob
Symbiosis: Ants and Leafhoppers
Hi Jacob,
Thanks so much for providing your detailed observations on the symbiotic relationship between Ants and Leafhoppers. Your observations regarding the frenzy over the vanished Leafhopper is especially interesting. Here in Los Angeles, the symbiotic relationship between the Argentine Ants and Aphids and Leafhoppers is most problematic since the invasive exotic Ant species transports the sap sucking insects from host plant to host plant, spreading the infestation throughout the garden. In these symbiotic relationships, both insects benefit. The Ants eat the honeydew secreted by the sap suckers as your narrative observes, and the sap suckers benefit from protection as you also observed.
Symbiosis: Ants and Leafhoppers
¶ Posted 08 August 2010 § Ants ‡ ° Wooley Booleys
Jul 16, 2010
Hi,
I spotted these in a marsh in Colorado & photographed them. They were on red willow, which was infested with aphids. They suck an aphid dry, then move on to the next aphid. I could not find any ID for these guys.
Thanks for considering my ID request!
Michelle
Dusky Lady Beetle Larvae eat Aphids
Hi Michelle,
At first we believed these might be the larvae of a Lady Beetle known as the Mealy Bug Destroyer, Cryptolaemus montrouzieri, a species introduced from Australia in 1891 to control Mealy Bugs on citrus in California according to BugGuide. We now believe they are probably a related species because they are not feeding on Mealy Bugs and also because they are further north than the range indicated on Bugguide. There are other species in the tribe Scymnini, the Dusky Lady Beetles, with similar looking larvae, including those in the genus Scymnus. The larva of a Scymnus species is pictured on BugGuide. The white projections are actually waxy outgrowths.
Hey, thanks! Cool! Do you want to use my photos for that section? If so, you are welcome to.
Spittle Bugs
July 7, 2010
Dear Bug Man,
A few weeks ago I decided to find out what the clusters of white “spit” were all over the weeds on our farm.
Spittle from a Spittlebug
After gently poking a piece of straw into a ball of “spit”, a tiny little creature emerged with the face of a frog. I was thrilled to finally see the source of all that spittle and after a bit of research found out that it was a leaf hopper nymph! I thought you and others might enjoy seeing some of my photos of this tiny fellow.
Tracey Tilson
Marion, North Carolina
Spittlebug
Hi Tracey,
Thanks so much for providing such excellent documentation of a Spittlebug, both inside and out of its home of spittle. Spittlebugs are in the family Cercopidae. According to BugGuide: “nymphs surround themselves with a frothy mass that resembles spittle” and “After the nymph molts for the final time, the resulting adult insect leaves the mass of ‘spittle’ and moves about actively. The ‘spittle’ is derived from a fluid voided from the anus and from a mucilaginous substance excreted by epidermal glands.“ Your photos are wonderful, but we have taken the liberty of cropping them to increase the size of the insects, and in doing so, we have cut off your Wet Knee Photography copyright mark.
Spittlebug
Hi Daniel!
I’m so happy you liked the photos of the leaf hopper nymph. It’s fine that the watermark was cropped off, as the subject of the photo is what your site is all about. I am fascinated by insects and have tons more photos to share with your site in the future.
Have a great week!
~Tracey Tilson
¶ Posted 07 July 2010 § ‡ ° Darth Maul bug in China
July 4, 2010
I have a grape tree growing in my back yard. I few months ago, as spring turned to summer, small black bugs, with white spots, started appearing on the tree (looking a lot like Shadows from Babylon 5.) I hosed the tree with water, and they disappeared. But now they are back, looking bigger and meaner! :s
It’s summer here now, with temperatures up to 40 C.
I just want to know if they are dangerous or not. After all, this is China, and you can never be sure of anything here….
HuanChu
Beijing, China
Lycorma delictula
Dear HuanChu,
Last June we received our first identification request from China for this immature Fulgorid Leafhopper which Karl, a longtime contributor to our website identified as Lycorma delictula, the White Cicada. Here is an excerpt from Karl’s response last year.
Another Update from Karl
Unknown Chinese Hemipteran
July 31, 2009
Daniel:
I dug a little deeper and found an interesting story behind this handsome creature. The species is Lycorma delictula (Family Fulgoridae : Subfamily Aphaeninae) and it has the erroneous common name White Cicada. Originally from southern China, it has been on the move recently and appears to have made quite a nuisance of itself outside of its natural range, particularly on the Korean Peninsula. I even found one reference in a report on China-Korea trade relations where it was referred to as “adding insult to injury”. It makes a living by sucking tree sap. Regards.
Karl
¶ Posted 05 July 2010 § ‡ ° Mystery Red and Blue Insect
June 4, 2010
While weeding my herb garden, I found the most beautiful little mystery bug relaxing on one of my peppermint plants! He was very small, maybe 7mm long. I’d never seen one before! I’d love to know what this guy is, so I know if he’s a danger to my herbs or not.
Katy
Toledo, OH
Candystriped Leafhopper
Hi Katy,
This Candystriped Leafhopper, Graphocephala coccinea, is one of the Leafhoppers in the Sharpshooter subfamily Cicadellinae. BugGuide has a nice information page on the species.
¶ Posted 04 June 2010 § ‡ ° 
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