Leaf Hoppers

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All these images are vastly oversized to give you a better view. As a general rule of thumb, take a pencil, sharpen it as best you can, then sharpen it again, draw the smallest line that you can with your pencil, I don't want a dot, the pencil must move on the paper, thus making a line. That's about the size of flower bugs ! Now you see how much these images are enlarged

Eupteryx cyclops

A spectacular genus of many common species with beautiful colouration. They are very variable, and the differences between them often subtle; from photographs alone, it may not be possible to identify all to species level.

Fagocyba cruenta

Extremley variable in colour, with the head and pronotum varying from pale to grey-brown or chestnut brown. This is one of the typical colourations, with the clavus and apices of the forewings suffused greyish.
The species can be abundant on some trees, but most notably beech, which hosts few other leafhoppers. There is a similar species, F. carri, which occurs locally on oak, and can only be reliably distinguished by microscopic examination.

Eupteryx Filicum

Although one of several similarly coloured leafhoppers, this is the only yellow Eupteryx species and the apical forewing venation and overall shape should confirm the genus on closer inspection.

Allygus Modestus

Length: 6 to 7.5 mm. The UK representatives of this genus are relatively large species having numerous white cross veins and dark dots on the forewings and vertex. This species can be separated from A. mixtus by its generally paler colouration and the presence on the vertex of two narrow black lines running diagonally from ocellus to median.

Arthaldeus pascuellus

Length 3 to 4 mm. The Arthaldeus species are greenish-yellow leafhoppers. There are two British species, both of which have two short dark streaks at the tip of the vertex. In A. pascuellus, the dark area of the face has no longitudinal pale streak (unlike the closely related A. striifrons). The forewing cells are usually greenish but sometimes darker edged.

Empoasca Vitis

Length 3 to 4 mm. The green colouring with white markings on the head, pronotum and scutellum distinguish the genus from other leafhoppers in the UK. E. vitis is separated from E. decipens by the clear (often blueish-looking) cell that runs obliquely up the forewings.

Graphocephala Fennahi - Rhododendron Leaf Hopper

This large and striking species is native to the USA, where it is known as the scarlet and green leafhopper. It was introduced to Europe in the early 1900s, and can now be found widely in southern Britain. Both adults and larvae feed on Rhododendron sap, and it is one of the few insects to use this shrub as a foodplant.

Adults can be found from mid-summer until quite late in the autumn, laying eggs in the leaf buds which hatch the following spring.

Green Leaf-hopper - Cicadella viridis

Length 6-8 mm. A large and eye-catching species. The bicoloured pronotum (yellow at the front and green at the rear) is distinctive. The forewings of the female are bright turquoise green, but those of the male are much darker blue-purple and may even be blackish.