Aster treehoppers (Publilia concava) are found in the eastern half of North America. The BugLady usually sees them on goldenrods, but they can also be found on several other species in the Aster family, and the (winged) adults may move to woody plants.
Even though she’s never exactly sure which species she’s looking at, the BugLady is always tickled when she finds one of these pointy little bugs. Here’s what you need to know about the improbable-looking Buffalo Treehopper – that it can fly and hop as well as walk, and that in Germany it’s called the “Büffelzikade” (“buffalo cicada”). The rest is lagniappe.
Introducing three unsung (but worthy) bugs, whose definitive biographies have yet to be written.
ENTYLIA CARINATA (no common name) is a treehopper in the family Membracidae (from the Greek membrax meaning “a kind of cicada”) (to whom they’re distantly related).
These thorn-mimicking Two-marked Treehoppers communicate with their prospective mates vocally. Both nymphal and adults tap into the stems of woody and herbaceous plants with their beaks and feed on the sap, and treehopper species are often closely associated with a single food source.
This episode, “Homopterans on Parade,” is about four groups of small plant-juice-suckers that grace (and sometimes damage) our vegetation.