The highlight of yesterday’s walk was this little dude, a new insect for me and perhaps the coolest bug I’ve ever seen. Meet Centrotus cornutus, one of only two British species of treehopper.
As you can see from the relative size of my thumb and the fact that it’s sitting on a blade of grass, this bug is tiny, averaging just 10mm in length. The British Bugs website says they can be found ‘on a range of plants in woodland rides’ – this one was amongst scrubby vegetation under trees in a local park, and the adults can be seen between April and August.
Though I wouldn’t usually promote Wikipedia, their entry on this bug has some interesting, seemingly well-referenced information that includes the idea that ‘The bizarre horn-like extensions of the pronotum apparently help the camouflage. As a matter of fact, when this insect is at rest on a branch with the legs retracted, it looks like a part of the branch itself.’ I can imagine that camouflage works rather well.
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