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Eurymeloides marmorata
A 'family' of leaf hoppers with attendant ants showing several instars. I believe the largest one (in pics 1,3,6) is the adult form. The second pic might be the penultimate form. Pic 4 shows the smallest one - almost all green but with a dirty face, and pic 5 shows either 2nd or 3rd. The adult ones were about 8mm long.
On the stems of a small eucalyptus in a local nature reserve.
This ID is assuming the adult head/pronotum might yet change colour to get somewhat duller.
family: CICADELLIDAE
subfamily: Eurymelinae
tribe: Eurymelini
http://bie.ala.org.au/species/urn:lsid:b...
Adults are very similar to these http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/173...
6 Comments
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added 2 more pics
Very interesting spotting
They always have plenty of aggressive ants waiting to protect too. Those ants don't care what comes along even giant humans and they attack very quickly. I will add another photo of what I believe is the first instar. (plain green)
Yes an interesting suggestion DJM but why just 4th of 5 different instars?
A little wasp mimic for protection maybe?