Leafhopper ID
July 13, 2009
Lots of these on our Red Bud tree recently (July). Black body with red underside, red line and one yellow line across thorax; wings black with 2 yellow-orange stripes across them. Approx. 1 cm. length. Antennae inconspicuous.
Mary
Central IL
Two Lined Spittlebug
Dear Mary,
This is a Two Lined Spittlebug, Prosapia bicincta. Spittlebugs are related to Leafhoppers and share many similarities since they are in the same suborder of Free Living Hemipterans, but they have their own family Cercopidae. The immature Spittlebugs live in a mass of foam that resembles spittle. BugGuide indicates that the damage done to plants is mild and states: “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.“
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Posted 14 July 2009
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Unusual cicada/moth like creature with upright tail
June 6, 2009
Hi bugman,
I found this insect on my backyard and looks quite strange. Its about an inch and a half from the head to the tail. I scoured the net but could not find a match. I hope you’ll help me identify this bug.
Thanks.
Buglover
Darjeeling, India.
Leafhopper
Dear Buglover,
Despite the speed of our new computer, we really cannot take the time to research this awesome insect at the moment. We have been posting old submissions for hours in an attempt to catch up on mail, but the laundry is in need of attention and there is gardening to do. You are correct in that this is a Cicada Like insect. It is in the Suborder Auchenorrhyncha which includes Cicadas and other Hoppers. We hope one of our readers can supply you with an answer until we can take the time to do some research.
Leafhopper
Update from Karl
August 12, 2009
Hi Daniel and Buglover:
This has to be one of my all-time favorite WTB postings, and one of the most challenging. I really would have thought that such a strikingly beautiful creature would be much easier to track down. It seems the “hoppers” fall into one of those taxonomic twilight zones where there is continuous debate about phylogenetic relationships. I had myself convinced that it was a fulgorid planthopper (Suborder Fulgoromorpha = Auchenorrhyncha), but it actually belongs in the obscure and very primitive family Aetalionidae (Suborder Cicadomorpha: Superfamily Membracoidea) and is therefore more closely allied to the leafhoppers (Cicadellidae) and treehoppers (Membracidae). I believe the species (finally) is Darthula hardwickii, but unfortunately I could find out nothing about the biology of this curious bug. Buglover’s photos are amazing and they match perfectly with a lengthy description provided by Kirkaldy (1900), including: “Face concealed beneath the frontal edge of pronotum…pronotum moderately compressed with a central strong longitudinal lunulate ridge…abdomen provided with a long apical process, about or nearly as long as the whole body, covered with long bristly hairs, with a strong triangular tubercle at base… the [wing] veins raised and prominent”. Apparently it is the largest known leafhopper, at a length of 28 mm, including the 12 mm abdominal appendage. The distribution is given as the Himalayan region from India/Nepal to western Yunnan, China. For another look there is a set of two incredible macro shots of the same creature on flickr (labeled “unidentified Fulgoroidea”). Thanks Buglover – that was awesome!
Karl
Oleander Aphids
July 12, 2009
I walked outside this afternoon to find some very confusing looking ‘yellow balls’ with odd pointy black bits on my butterfly bush. After some minor research, it turns out they are Oleander Aphids. I saw you only have one photo of the little weirdos, so here is another! They apparently do not harm the plant, so they get to stay there.
Lisa
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Oleander Aphids
Dear Lisa,
We get Oleander Aphids, Aphis nerii, on our Hoya lanceolata each year. We do not believe they are harmless as they suck the sap from the host plant. We spray them off the Hoya with a hose.
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Posted 13 July 2009
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Unknown hunch-backed insect
Wed, Jul 8, 2009 at 6:02 AM
This picture was taken on 7/7/09 on a pontoon rail while boating on Medicine Lake in Minnesota (near Minneapolis). My niece is visiting from Belgium (she’s 7) and she would like to know what kind of bug this is.
Doug
Near Minneapolis, MN
Unknown Treehopper
Dear Doug,
We sifted through hundreds of images on BugGuide, but we had no luck identifying what species of Treehopper in the family Membracidae you have submitted. We could find no matches with both the body contour and the coloration of your specimen. The contour seems closest to the genus Smilia, but the coloration does seem different. Perhaps one of our readers will have better luck with a more definitive identification.
Moth, beetle, & spawn in southern Ontario
Tue, Jun 16, 2009 at 4:44 PM
I have three bugs I’d like identified. All photos were taken today in my backyard (date is on the photos). I live in Hamilton, Ontario (Canada).
… 3)Spawn.jpg – This year almost all dandelion leafs and weeds in my area are covered in this foam with a small yellow slug-like bug in the center! Whenever I go to pick some greens for my Guinea Pigs my hands get covered in the stuff. This is the first year I’ve seen such a thing and they were even present at a park 50km away that I visited last week.
Help in identifying these 3 bugs would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you, Luke.
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Spittlebug
Hi Luke,
As we have already indicated, multiple unrelated species in the same letter is something we avoid posting, but we were really interested in sharing two of your images with our readership. This is a nymph of an aptly named Spittlebug in the family Cercopidae a group of free living Hemipterans. According to BugGuide: “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. Spittlebug nymphs wander away from their spittle masses, and either start new ones, or enter those of other nymphs. Aphrophora nymphs hold the record, of one spittle mass over a foot long containing about 100 individuals! (Comment by Andy Hamilton). ”
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Posted 17 June 2009
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amazing Bug
Tue, May 12, 2009 at 6:46 AM
Hi, I’ve found this kind of bug at Brasilia/DF (BRAZIL), and I’ve never found this in another place. This insect has +/- 5mm and lives on the fences around the grass.
thks
Rui José
Brasília/DF- BRAZIL
Tree Hopper Nymph with Ant (bicho e formiga)
Dear Rui José,
This is an immature Homopteran, probably a Tree Hopper in the family Membracidae. They exude a sweet substance known as honeydew which attracts the ants.
Correction: Mon, May 18, 2009 at 1:46 PM
Hi Daniel:
The Membracid nymph from Brazil is in the genus Membracis, probably M. lunata (= foliata). I’m clueless on the ant, Regards.
Karl
Link: http://www.cerambyx.uochb.cz/membracis2.htm
Wow Karl,
The adult on the link you provided is equally as impressive as the nymph.
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Posted 16 May 2009
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Hong Kong bug
Sat, Apr 18, 2009 at 5:24 PM
Hello,
I just took this photo yesterday (April 18) on a roadside tree in Hong Kong. These bugs have been appearing for years, but only on this one specific tree. At times I have seen more than five all within plain sight.
They are about 2 inches long from nose to tail. The can fly, but not well, and they move sideways just as easily as backwards and forwards.
I don’t even know where to start looking them up – they look half moth and half beetle.
Thanks
Guy
Mid Levels, Hong Kong
Longan Chicken, a Lanternfly
Dear Guy,
This is a Lanternfly, an unusual group of insects in the family Fulgoridae. When we posted another image of this species from Hong Kong in January 2007, we got this species identification: “Hi Bugman,
I believe that the lanternfly that Alex found in Hong Kong is Pyrops candelaria. The two most “common” Mandarin common names of this lanternfly , if translated literaly to English, is “white wax cicarda” (because of the white, wax-like powders on its eggs), and “longan chicken” (because it feeds on saps of the longan trees (Dimocarpus longan) as well as other fruit trees such as mango, lichi and olive). Pyrops candelaria is easily seen in Hong Kong and SE Asia. Images can be found here ( http://www.pbase.com/bluetitan/pyropscandelaria ) and here ( http://aestheticarthropoda.blogspot.com/2006/12/pyrops-candelaria.html ). (Unfortunately most of the introduction to this lanternfly is in Mandarin, and the second link is the best English description I can find.) hopefully you find it helpful, Wei-Ting “ As a side note, we use the compound word Lanternfly, while some websites prefer to split the units and call this insect a Lantern Fly. That would imply that it is a true fly, which it is not. We stand firm on the spelling Lanternfly being correct.
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Posted 20 April 2009
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red striped moth or beetle?
Mon, Apr 13, 2009 at 2:29 PM
We saw these on our oak tree Easter morning. There are probably about 50 or so on this little branch (the branch is about as big around as a pencil). They look like some type of beetle or moth and are pretty slow moving. None of them flew off and only repositioned themselved when I touched them with a leaf. Do you know what they are?
Angie
Jacksonville, FL
Oak Treehoppers
Hi Angie,
You have Oak Treehoppers. Platycotis vittata. This is a variable species. Some are striped and some not. Some have a horn and some do not. The species, according to BugGuide, does almost no damage to trees, and “Females seem to exhibit protective behavior, keeping predators away from the young. “
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Posted 13 April 2009
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White and Red Horned bug
Sun, Apr 5, 2009 at 11:48 AM
We live in Jacksonville, Florida, there’s a tree in the back yard, small leaves, and nuts. These small bugs, maybe half an inch long at most, litter the low lying branches. These pictures are of the same group, it’s April now, and they’ve been there for no less than a month, getting bigger, horns growing all the while. They look, if the pictures don’t show it so well, like tiny Cicada, with the addition of the horn atop their heads.
Keegan R. Gilmore
Northern Florida, US (Jacksonville
Oak Treehoppers
Hi Keegan,
These are Oak Treehoppers, Platycotis vittata. The tree you describe sounds like an oak, though the fruit is generally called an acorn, not a nut. According to BugGuide there are several color variations, and they are described as: “Grayish spotted with yellow, or turquoise with red stripes and red eyes. With or without a thorn-like horn.” BugGuide also indicates: “Hatching occurs in Spring in the South, and in late Spring in the North. Larva pass through five instars, and adults and larva form aggregations along oak twigs of up to 100 individuals. Females seem to exhibit protective behavior, keeping predators away from the young” and that it “Does almost no damage to the host trees—leaves only a few twig scars from oviposition. “ Treehoppers and Cicadas belong to the same superfamily, Cicadoidea, in the insect order Hemiptera, which explains the resemblance you noticed.
Oak Treehoppers
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Posted 06 April 2009
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Black spiny bug killed my tomato plant Sat, Apr 4, 2009 at 10:52 PM
Dear bugman,
These black spiny creatures annihilated our tomato plant. Swarmed all over it. We’re kinda lazy gardeners, so we just let them. They also killed the wooden bunny that was resting on the tomato plant. Poor bunny never had a chance.
Josh
Silver Lake, Los Angeles, CA
Keeled Treehopper Nymphs
Treehoppers
Sat, Apr 4, 2009 at 11:11 PM
Woops! I should have googled first. I realize that I just sent you pictures of Keeled Treehoppers. “Black spiny tomato pest” did the trick. Thanks anyway.
Josh
LA
Hi Josh,
We are happy to see you correctly identified your Treehopper nymphs. We find them to be most troublesome on our tomato plants in the fall and winter. We have noticed huge colonies of the spiny numphs on the woody stems of our plants in the fall, and we rarely have issues with Treehoppers on our young tomato plants. This pestiferous species is also a problem with peppers, eggplant and other solanaceous plants.
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Posted 05 April 2009
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A fly with a blue, elongated nose and green wings with yellow polka dots.
Wed, Apr 1, 2009 at 2:04 PM
Found in the rainforest in Borneo.
Vin
Sandakan, Borneo
Lanternflies from Borneo
Hi Vin,
In April 2008, we posted an image of this spectacular Lanternfly in the family Fulgoridae, also from Borneo, but we were never able to identify the species. Perhaps one of our readers will be able to supply us with a species identification.
Is this a Lantern Moth?
Tue, Mar 31, 2009 at 3:43 PM
This moth stayed on our terrace in Zihuatanejo, Mexico for a day and a night last fall.
Abigail
Zihuatanejo Mexico
Lanternfly
Hi Abigail,
This is a Lanternfly, and it is a planthopper in the family Fulgoridae, not a moth. The Lanternfly is sometimes called a Peanut Headed Bug as well as an Alligator Bug because of its appearance. It is thought to mimic a lizard to escape predators. Your photo illustrates this nicely. According to Wikipedia , this insect, known as the Machaca in the Amazon, has a very interesting superstition surrounding it: “In several countries, such as Ecuador ,Colombia and Venezuela , there exists the myth that if somebody is bitten by the machaca , he or she must have sex within 24 hours to prevent an otherwise incurable death. The insect is actually harmless to people.” Your photo of the underside of the Lanterfly shows the eyespots on the lower wings. This is another form of protective mimicry, because when the Lanternfly reveals those eyespots, it gives the illusion of being a large predator.
Lanternfly
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Posted 01 April 2009
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