rss Identification
Location: Boston, MA
October 3, 2010 2:42 pm
I’ll appreciate if you could identified this insect. We have never seen one like this in Jamaica Plain, Boston, MA
Thanks
RB
Signature: Sanpico
Candystriped Leafhopper
Hi Sanpico,
This Leafhopper is one of the Sharpshooters and it is commonly called the Candystriped Leafhopper, Graphocephala coccinea. It is a common species that is suspected of spreading viruses to plants it feeds upon.
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
Mini Bug Super Highway on my Garden Hose
Location: Tulare, California
September 8, 2010 6:02 pm
I came home today to find some kind of mini super highway on my garden hose made up of some kind of strange mini tick/beetle thing. What are they and is my pet safe outside?
Signature: The bugs are taking over
Aphids
These appear to be Aphids, and they will not harm your pet, however, they will suck the life from your plants should they become too plentiful.
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
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.
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
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
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
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