Subject: Please help … I can’t find what insect this is
Geographic location of the bug: South-Africa Gauteng
Date: 02/22/2020
Time: 08:10 AM EDT
Your letter to the bugman: Please help.
I found this bug …
I don’t know if its a moth or butterfly or anything else.
It started to lay eggs in the Jar I put her in.
Green with white and black spots with a red body and a white tail were the eggs are coming out.
It walks backwards and sidewards.
How you want your letter signed: K.Krugel
Dear K.Krugel,
This is neither a butterfly nor a moth. It is a Planthopper. We found it pictured but not identified on iStock Getty Photo. We then located an image in our archives that we identified as the Mottled Avocado Bug, Parapioxys jucundus. Here is a FlickR image. It is described in the Field Guide to Insects of South Africa as: “a probable lichen-mimic, has a very broad head, and is vividly coloured, with emerald green fore wings with concentrations of white spots and blotches, overlaid with black spots.”
