Small World Discoveries

HEMIPTERA > AUCHENORRHYNCHA > CICADOMORPHA > Cicadellidae

Despite the similarity of the name, the Cicadellidae leafhopper family should not be confused with Cicadidae, which only includes a single, very rare and possibly even extinct species, the New Forest Cicada [Cicadetta montana], which hasn't been recorded since 1992.

The Cicadellidae on the other hand is a very large family over 280 species collectively known as leafhoppers, that range in size from as little as 2mm up to 18mm. Some are colourful and distinctive and can usually be identified relatively easily, whilst others need care and can be difficult. The 'British Bugs' website currently has details and photos of around 170 species separated into various subfamilies and tribes.

Cicadellinae

This small subfamily includes four species including the attractive Green Leafhopper [Cicadella viridis] and the distinctive and the strikingly marked Rhododendron Leafhopper [Graphocephala fennahi] featured here. Cicadella viridis has a yellowish head with two black spots and a turquoise-green pronotum and forewings, although the forewings of the male are a darker bluish-purple colour. They are around 6-8mm long and are most likely to be found in wetland habitats. It's a widespread species with adults active from July to October.  As leafhoppers go, Graphocephala fennahi is large at 8-10mm. It is also unmistakable with its red striped markings , coupled with the fact that it will almost certainly only be found on rhododendrons. It is pretty much restricted to southern counties where adults can be found from mid-summer until quite late in the autumn, laying eggs in the leaf buds which will hatch the following spring. 

Deltocephalinae

This large subfamily is split into eight tribes that include around 50 species. I've only seen three, which coincidently are all in the Athysanini tribe. Allygus mixtus is an elongate , generally brownish species with mottled forewings that have large cells with whiteish-coloured cross-veins. It's a common species with scattered distribution, and associated with deciduous trees, particularly oaks. Speudotettix subfusculus is similar to Thamnotettix in size and shape, but distinctive with uniformly brownish forewings with pale veins. The vertex has two streaks at the anterior edge which may join in the middle and there is an orange-brown transverse band behind this. The anterior of the pronotum has variably dark markings. It's another species that is most likely to be found on oak trees. Thamnotettix confinis is mainly greenish in colour, often with two or four darker marks on the vertex. The ocelli are small and separated from the eyes by more than their own diameter. It is widespread on broad-leaved trees and shrubs. All three species average around 6mm long.

Macropsinae

There are twelve species in this particular subfamily. Pedioposis tiliae is easily recognisable by its general appearance and plain yellow face but the others, which are in just two genera Oncopsis and Macropsis, are rather tricky. Despite only having a side view of the individual featured below, it is most likely an adult male Oncopsis subangulata. There's probably just enough of the face visible to confirm, but it's very similar to the more common Oncopsis flavicollis, although the male of that species has stronger, more defined facial markings with prominent discoidal spots. Oncopsis species are sexually dimorphic with females having rather different, although often variable, colouration. The two species referred to here are both associated with birch.  

Typhlocybinae

This is the largest of the Cicadellidae subfamiles with well over sixty species that are separated into five tribes. At present, I've only seen one or, should I say, only have one that can be included here as the other that I tried photographing, Eupteryx stachydearum, is frustratingly too small in the frame. The individual that I am able to feature was positively identified as Lindbergina aurovittata by a member of the UK Hemiptera FB group, noting that its forewings don't have an appendix - an entirely membranous area at the tip - thereby ruling out the rather similar Alebra albostriatella. It's a very small leafhopper that measures just 3-3.5mm long and was an unexpected find in December hidden on the underside of a leaf.