Leafhopper: Acericerus species

12 Thursday Sep 2024

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Acericerus nymphs, Acericerus species, British cicadellidae, British leafhoppers, Cicadellidae, leafhoppers

I’ve been leaf-bothering a few times recently at Cardiff’s Cathays Cemetery in an attempt to re-find the species of leafhopper (Zyginella pulchra) that I found ‘new to Wales’ back in 2016 (First recorded sighting in Wales!, September 2016). I’ve had no luck with that so far – I’m planning more visits, but I have found a few other nice leafhoppers at the cemetery and in nearby Heath Park (those leafhoppers will feature in future blogs).

240912 Acericerus sp (1)

Though I thought its markings quite distinctive, today’s handsome leafhopper can only be identified to species, one of the Acericerus species to be precise. According to the Cicadellidae species list on the British Bugs website, there are three possibilities: Acericerus heydenii (British Bugs has no page dedicated to this species but I found it on Naturespot), A. ribauti and A. vittifrons. To be honest, none of these look anything like my photos (mine were identified as Acericerus species by the national records verifier), so I assume the two I found were nymphs and thus were sporting the colouration and patterning of immature specimens. Leafhoppers can be tricky, and I obviously need to search further.

240912 Acericerus sp (2)

Leafhopper: Populicerus confusus

07 Saturday Sep 2024

Posted by sconzani in insects

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British cicadellidae, British leafhoppers, Cicadellidae, Idiocerus confusus, leafhopper, leafhopper on willow, Populicerus confusus

I found this little leafhopper a few weeks ago but it sometimes take a while for the verifiers to check records (that’s not a criticism – they are almost all volunteers, and I am hugely grateful for their efforts). And, to be honest, I wasn’t sure this would be accepted as I read on one website that the species could only be identified by examination of its internal genital structure. Fortunately, that didn’t prove necessary in this case.

240907 Populicerus confusus (1)

So, meet Populicerus confusus (also known as Idiocerus confusus), a leafhopper that can be found throughout Britain, living on the various species of willow (Salix species), usually in the damp environments preferred by those trees. The two I spotted quite close together were on a young willow at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park.

240907 Populicerus confusus (2)

Like most members of the Cicadellidae family, Populicerus confusus is small, between 5 and 7mm in length. It is mainly yellow-green, with rusty colouring on the inside of its forewings and, often but not always, a brownish posterior. The adult leafhoppers can be seen from June to October.

Leafhopper: Populicerus sp.

28 Monday Aug 2023

Posted by sconzani in insects

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British cicadellidae, British leafhoppers, leafhopper, leafhopper on Poplar, Poplar, Populicerus sp.

I found a new leafhopper species last week but, despite it having quite distinctive markings, I have not been able to identify it exactly. This is because there are several that look very similar and, even knowing the tree or plant they are on (in this case, Poplar), doesn’t help. One needs to examine their genitals to figure these little leafhoppers out.

230828 Populicerus sp (1)

There are five species of Populicerus showing in the Welsh database (Populicerus confusus, P. populi, P. albicans, P. nitidissimus, and P. laminatus), only four of which have been recorded in Wales (the first four in my list) and, of those, the numbers, except for P. confusus (64) are in single digits. That is likely to be a reflection of the difficulty of identifying the species rather than the populations of these leafhoppers.

230828 Populicerus sp (2)

All five species have similar markings but three have different colouring. However, Populicerus populi and P. laminatus are so similar that they require more intimate examination – the creature I found, the leafhopper shown here, is one of these two.

A new leafhopper

31 Tuesday May 2022

Posted by sconzani in insects, trees

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British cicadellidae, British leafhoppers, Cicadellidae, leafhopper, Speudotettix subfusculus

Brownish? Check. Pale veins? Check. ‘The vertex has two streaks at the anterior edge which may join in the middle’? (You can’t really see this in my photos – I had to enlarge them to find them. Also, if, like me, you aren’t familiar with the anatomy of a leafhopper, the British Bugs website has an illustrated page of bug bits.) Check. ‘And there is an orange-brown transverse band behind this’? Check. ‘The anterior of the pronotum has variably dark markings’? Check.
Six checks is a winner! This little leafhopper, a new find for me, is Speudotettix subfusculus. Look for it on trees, especially Oak trees.

220531 Speudotettix subfusculus