Lean, Green Tiny Machine

 
Look who was willing to sit still while I stuck the camera right in his face! (Or hers... I have no clue)



Yes, it's a leafhopper. Remember, I found a white leafhopper in August?

This one was a little smaller, maybe a bit over 1/4 inch in length, about 5mm. Still, it's pretty good sized. I often see really tiny ones, more like an eighth inch.



And this one is the quintessential example, looking just like a tiny leaf. They are usually very nervous, so I was surprised I got several tries at getting a picture. None of them is in perfect focus, but still, not really bad.

There are thousands of kinds, I can't even begin to name this one (Charlie?). I looked through BugID.net and didn't see a good match. That would be about as far as I could take it.

Rained today. That's fine with me. It's supposed to clear and be a nice weekend.

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White Leafhopper

 
Here's a cute little guy that showed up on my porch. Keep in mind the picture is much larger than the real insect is. The leafhopper was probably 3/8 inch long total. Actually larger than a lot of them I see. But I'd never seen a white one. I mostly see green or brownish ones.



Leafhoppers are true bugs, Hemiptera, in the family Cicadellidae. They used to have their own order Homoptera, but that order has been split up and placed within others. Some species can be real pests of food crops when present in large numbers. They have piercing-sucking mouthparts and will suck the sap from leaves.

They jump so fast you could almost believe they can disappear. You'll be looking at one, and then it will be gone without seeing it go!

I found information about two white ones, but both of those have translucent wings, which this does not. One lives out west and is called the White Apple Leafhopper. It does a lot of damage. One that is found in the east is the Grape Leafhopper, but it too has translucent wings. There are over 20,000 species of leafhoppers that have been described... let alone ones that might not have been named yet.

I will just continue to think it's cute until forced to consider it as bad.

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