Costa Rican cotton ball?
Hi Bugman
Well, I have never in all my days seen one quite like this. It is about 2″ long, I would say. Hope you can help identify it for us. We live on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica. I flew into my husband’s shop the other day. Thanks
Sarah Morgan
Hi Sarah,
We can only be very general about this identification. It is a Homopteran Plant Hopper and we are not even sure of the family since there are many families in the tropics that do not occur in temperate zones. Additionally, available reference materials are often sketchy. The white feathery projections are probably a waxy substance produced by the insect. We will see if Eric Eaton can provide any additional information.
Update: June 17, 2012
We believe this might be a Wax Tail Hopper, Pterodictya reticularis, based on this FlickR posting.