Cicada from Tasmania
Location: Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
May 6, 2011 8:22 pm
I find this on one plant in my garden in Tasmania, Australia. Less than a half-inch long. It seems like a cicada though not the native hairy legged one of Tettigarctidae found here normally (http://www.ces.csiro.au/aicn/name_c/a_4255.htm) based only on a non-microscopic examination. It is silent even in warmer weather but has survived to the winter.
Signature: Tasmanian bug watcher

Passion Vine Hopper

Dear Tasmanian Bug Watcher,
It is undeniable that your insect resembles a Cicada, but we believe it is a Passion Vine Hopper, Scolypopa australis, which is classified in the family Ricaniidae and not as one of the Cicadas in the family Cicadidae.  Taxonomically, the split occurs at the suborder Auchenorrhyncha, the Free Living Hemipterans.  The family of Cicadas is represented in the superfamily Cicadoidea while the Ricaniid Planthoppers are represented in the superfamily Fulgoroidea.  Ricaniidae is a small Old World family and it is not represented in North America.  It is profiled on the Brisbane Insect Website where it is stated:  “When disturbed, they jumped away with a loud ‘click’ sound and disappeared in the air.  Many of them can be found resting on the same plant during early summer. They are consider as pest on passion vine and kiwifruit. It seems that besides those vine plants, they feed on many other plants as well.”  Because it is considered to be a pest of Kiwi and because Kiwi has such economic significance, the Passion Vine Hopper has been the subject of numerous technical papers including this article from the New Zealand Entomologist.

Passion Vine Hopper

Thank you. I now see the larvae are there are well (which I thought were large aphids of some sort). I will try and eradicate it.

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Strange small bug
Location: Girona, Spain
April 27, 2011 7:05 am
Hi,
I found this bug in my garden.
I have never seen anything like it before, could you let me know what it is & if it’s poisonous?
Signature: Alix

Unknown Insect from Spain

Hi Alix,
We just returned from a holiday and despite our posting a notice that we would not be responding to emails, we are positively swamped with identification requests.  We decided to look at the most recent requests and found yours, and this one is a bit of a puzzle for us.  We have confessed on numerous occasions that we do not have a background in entomology, and we need to use the internet for much of our research.  Judging by the antennae, this sure appears to be a beetle, but we are not sure if it is larval since it doesn’t have wings, or if it is a wingless adult, or if it is something else entirely.  Alas, we are also quite busy with our day job and we haven’t the time to research this, but we want to post it in the hopes that one of our readers with more knowledge can provide a comment.  We also wrote to our longtime contributor Eric Eaton to see if he can email us an answer.

Unknown Insect from Spain

Eric Eaton Responds
Daniel:
… The bug in the images is probably some kind of mealybug-type thing that has lost much of its usual waxy coating.  Pretty big for a scale insect, but I don’t think it can be anything else.  Try looking up Pseudococcidae for Spain and see what turns up.  …
Eric

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Not in Insects of LA Book
Location: Thousand Oaks, CA
April 1, 2011 9:48 am
Hi,
I’ve seen a small (~ 3mm long x 1 mm wide) bug on a plant in my garden that I can’t identify. It’s been on a Lion’s Mane plant in the Los Angeles, CA area in March of this year (temps between 50-80 F). No picture seems to match it in Hogue’s ”Insects of the LA Basin”, my favorite local reference. A couple of pictures are attached. Thanks for your help.
Signature: TO-photo

Leafhopper Nymph

Dear TO-photo,
We opened your email yesterday, and we knew we wanted to post your photos, but our own garden was calling to us.  We thought about your letter as we were pulling weeds and taking in the wealth of insects that were enjoying the warm sunny conditions, and we waxed poetically about the awesome author Charles Hogue, whose book you mentioned.  The Insects of the Los Angeles Basin is our standard for attempting to identify unknown creatures we encounter, but like you, we are sometimes forced to search other venues.  Perhaps the world is ready for MORE Insects of the Los Angeles Basin because no volume is ever truly complete.  This is an immature Leafhopper, and Hogue’s book only lists two species on page 124.  Immature insects can often be quite difficult to identify to the species level.  We did a quick search of Leafhoppers in the family Cicidellidae on BugGuide, but we were unable to confirm a conclusive match, so we hope you are satisfied with a family identification.  If there are any adult specimens, identification may be much easier.  The quality of your photos is excellent.

Leafhopper Nymph

unidentified blue bug
Location: Southern California
March 27, 2011 6:56 pm
I was curious if you could help me in identifying this bug, if it is one. I’m gonna make a guess as to it being an aphid of some sort or related to them, but I am no entomologist. They are all over the leaves of my hedge. I would really be grateful for the help.
Signature: Curiously Intruiged

Podocarpus Aphids

Hi Curiously Intruiged (Intrigued?),
You are correct.  These are Aphids.  We have similar Aphids on the collard greens in the vegetable patch of our Mt. Washington, Los Angeles garden, though we have not tried to correctly identify the species.

Update:
Buglady just provided a comment that these are Podocarpus Aphids, Neophyllaphis podocarpi, and BugGuide has a few images of the species.

Thank you so much. (And yes i meant intrigued, damn dyslexia haha.)