Though we missed the worst of it here in south-east Wales, last Sunday was a miserable day, the rain and gusty winds of Storm Ashley blasting across the British Isles. Luckily for me, the gloom was much cheered by an email verifying my recent record of this leafhopper, Rhytidodus decimusquartus.

It’s always good to have records of new species identified but, in this case, I was particularly chuffed as this was a rare sighting. The Aderyn biodiversity database shows no previous Welsh records, though, when I checked the NBN Atlas to see how many other British records there were, I found one record from 1985 in north Wales (I’m not sure why that’s not showing in Aderyn), and just 30 other British records.

I’m sure you’ll agree that Rhytidodus decimusquartus (previously known as Idiocerus decimusquartus) is a handsome little beastie, just 6-7mm long. The British Bugs website warns that leafhoppers in this group can be very tricky to identify but ‘This species has one unique feature that allows definitive identification: the vertex and pronotum have fine transverse ridges’, and these ridges were clearly visible in my photographs. I’ve now found at least four species of leafhopper on the Lombardy poplars where this little one was lurking so I’ll be heading back very soon to see what other wonders I might discover amongst their leaves (if the leaves are still on the trees after all that wind).