Leafhopper - pale yellow, green and blue with brown wing tips

[Bruce Williams]

Northants garden. Hawthorn tree growing in wild patch..

Help with identification appreciated:



Bruce

[Acutipuerilis]

Hi Bruce,
This is Zyginella pulchra, a species that's currently spreading astonishingly rapidly across the country. Some specimens have a brick-red streak by the scutellum, but not all. It's normally associated with Sycamore (or various evergreens) in winter; although I do get it on hawthorn in my garden, sycamore overshadows it. If there's no sycamore there, and you find it consistently on your hawthorn, it's very interesting indeed.

Couold you send me the exact record for this, please? It's worth recording, because although the range is already as far as Yorkshire, we're very sparse on data points as yet.

Joe

[Bruce Williams]

Thanks for your help with id Joe. I'll keep checking the hawthorn.

Details are as follows:

Location: Location: Yardley Gobion, Northants. SP 7647 4474
Habitat: Hawthorn tree in wild patch.
Date: 24th March 2009, 10:30 am.
Size: approx. 5mm.

Bruce

[tristanba]

This is a female - you can see the beginning of the dark line which runs below the eyes.

Interestingly this species seems to disappear from sycamore during the summer and reappear in the autumn, overwintering as adults on evergreens. We suspect it spends most of summer as an egg, unless adults are living high in the canopy where they are much less visible.

[Bruce Williams]

Thanks for the additional info Tristan - knowing about these sorts of things makes the "hobby" so much more enjoyable.

Bruce