January 31, 2010 | Tupaciguara, Minas Gerais, Brazil
Remember the recent crypsis challenge where Ted C. MacRae thought he also saw a noctuid moth in addition to the more obvious praying mantis? Well, that wasn’t a moth at all, but what sure looks like the nymph of some sort of homopteran.
I actually saw quite a few of these in the area. Here’s another one.
Another individual
I’ve been puzzling over this for quite awhile now. While I’ve encountered and seen pictures of plenty of homopteran nymphs with waxy appendages extending from their abdomen, I’ve never seen one with anything like the plumose structure shown here.
These bugs also have unusually long antennae for homopterans. The positioning of the antennae, in front of rather than below the eyes, points in the direction of leafhoppers rather than planthoppers. The face makes me think of a cicada or a cercopid.
Can someone point me in the right direction here?
I agree with Cicadellidae, but that plumose structure and the length of the antennae are not like any I’ve ever seen in this group.
Very nice photographs!