Africa Wild

Leafhopper
Suborder: Auchenorrhyncha. Infraorder: Cicadomorpha. Superfamily: Membracoidea. Family: Cicadellidae

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© BluTuna

© BluTuna
Garden in Johannesburg

Leafhoppers are sap-sucking insects, which feed on grass or shrubs and trees, and occasionally on both Monocotyledons and Dicotyledons. They are found throughout the temperate and tropical regions of the world. Some species have a cosmopolitan distribution, and some are pests or vectors of plant viruses and phytoplasmas. They have an incomplete metamorphosis and have various host associations varying from very wide to very narrow ranges.
All species have hind legs modified for jumping, and are covered with hairs that allow them to spread a secretion (brochosomes) over the body that acts as a water repellent and carrier of pheromones.

Family Eurybrachyidae (Squathoppers)
The Eurybrachyidae are a small family of planthoppers with species occurring in parts of Asia, Australia and Africa. The Eurybrachyidae generally resemble related families of planthoppers in the Fulgoromorpha. Large and squat, often mottled in brown, red, yellow and orange. They are moderate-sized insects, generally 1 to 3 cm long when mature, but they are unobtrusive and camouflaged with brown, grey or green blotches, mimicking foliage, bark or lichens. Their mottled camouflage patterns are most intense on the large forewings of many species, hiding the broad and often aposematically colourful abdomen. The frons of the head is characteristic, being broader than it is long.

Moth Bug, Mottled Avocado Bug Paropioxys jucundus
Suborder Auchenorrhyncha. Infraorder Fulgoromorpha. Superfamily: Fulgoroidea. Family: Eurybrachyidae

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Kruger National Park

Description
It resembles a moth, but it is actually a planthopper. It is fairly small, about 5 mm in length.

Family Flatidae (Flatid Planthoppers, Moth Bugs)

Flatidae are a family of fulgoroid planthoppers. They are cosmopolitan in distribution and are distinguished from others in the superfamily by a combination of characters. Adults of some species have brightly coloured wings, often dusted with wax. Easily identified by very broad, generally green or blue wings, the very large, fan-like, triangular hind wings often covered in a dusty layer of white wax. At rest hind wings are folded roof-like against the body. Forewings with tubercles between veins on clavus and with numerous costal crossveins. Beak with apical segment longer than wide; styles shorter than length of pygofer; anal tube moveable.
When hopping, Flatid planthoppers make use of spines on their hind legs to provide purchase necessary for takeoff. The spines on the tibiae are one characteristic of the Flatidae.
Nymphs of many flatids secrete a filamentous wax from the time they hatch. The filaments are extruded from glandular tissue at the tip of the abdomen, and provide protection from predators and prevent desiccation.
In the subfamily Flatinae, the body of adults is flattened laterally and the tegmina are tent-like. In the Flatoidinae, the body is not laterally compressed and the tegmina are not as tent-like and sometimes held horizontally. The wing venation is distinctive in that the veins in the anal region are nodose, and the costal area has numerous cross veins. The antennae are small and the first segment is collar-like and small. The second segment is longer and ends in a bulge and a flagellum arises from it. They have two ocelli. Nymphs have a tail of waxy filaments.

Flatid Planthopper
Suborder Auchenorrhyncha. Infraorder Fulgoromorpha. Superfamily: Fulgoroidea. Family Flatidae. Subfamily Flatinae

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© BluTuna
Garden in Johannesburg

Family Dictyopharidae (Dictyphorid Planthoppers)
The planthopper family Dictyopharidae is a moderately large family of Fulgoromorpha. Members of Dictyopharidae often can be recognized by their variably anteriorly produced elongated head, forming a snout, although this character is not unique to Dictyopharidae within Fulgoromorpha. Wings are narrow, often clear, but without network of tiny veins in anal area, distinguishing them from lantern bugs (Fulgoridae). Wingless species are common. Members of this group are predominantly monocot-feeders, and a few are major pests on Poaceae (grasses).
There are 41 species known from the region.

Dictyopharid Planthopper
Suborder: Auchenorrhyncha. Infraorder: Fulgoromorpha. Superfamily: Fulgoroidea. Family: Dictyopharidae


Hartebeespoort, North West Province.

The Dictyopharidae are moderate to small in size (compared to Fulgoridae, their sister group) and usually bear an elongate head process. The head process is common to both families, but not unique. Most dictyopharines are dicot feeders, with a few economically important agricultural pests.

Family Tettigometridae (Whiptip Hoppers)
Small and stout, magnification of antenna revealing a ringed whip-like antennal tip, arising from a large swollen basal segment.

Plant Hopper, Groundnut Hopper Hilda patruelis
Suborder: Auchenorrhyncha. Infraorder: Fulgoromorpha. Superfamily: Fulgoroidea. Family Tettigometridae


Kruger National Park

Description
An adult hopper is a polyphagous sucking bug measuring from 3 to 5 mm in length. It is squat with a very broad head, brown or green prothorax and olive, or green-brown wings with three dark patches highlighted by a short silvery white stripe. Nymphs resemble the adults but without fully developed wings.

Distribution
Found in Africa south of the Sahara, by far the most common of the three species of tettigometrid recorded from southern Africa.

Biology
It is found on a wide range of host plants where it is considered a minor pest (cashew nuts, pigeonpea, citrus, soybean, maize, potato, okra, sunflower, cowpea, Phaseolus bean, and mung bean). However, it can be of economic importance to groundnuts and wild fig trees.

It has an obligate symbiotic relationship with several species of ants which protect it from predators and maintain the tunnels around the root zone in return for the sugary liquid, honeydew, excreted by the hopper. It has been found that on fig trees, the attendant ants drive off the parasitic wasps that parasitize the larvae of the fig wasp pollinator and thus benefit the tree by increasing pollinator production. They also increase plant fitness by driving off seed predators as well.

The pugnaceous ants Anoplolepis custodiens and Pheidole megacephala are two of the most commonly seen species tending H. patruelis. The ant seen here is Pheidole megacephala.

Family Fulgoridae (Lanternbugs, Planthoppers)

The family Fulgoridae is a large group of hemipteran insects, especially abundant and diverse in the tropics, containing over 125 genera worldwide. They are mostly of moderate to large size, many with a superficial resemblance to Lepidoptera due to their brilliant and varied coloration. Various genera and species are sometimes referred to as lanternflies or lanthorn flies, though they do not emit light.
The head of some species is produced into a hollow process (structure), resembling a snout, which is sometimes inflated and nearly as large as the body of the insect, sometimes elongated, narrow and apically upturned.

They can be recognized by the reticulate veination of the hindwings, and usually the forewings, which are often opaque and held tectiform. The second tarsomere of the hind leg bears a row of teeth, a feature shared with Dictyopharidae and basal planthoppers, but in contrast to the derived families.