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Project Noah Nature School
Sextius virescens
Thorns with horns.
When many of these horny hoppers come together they tend to line up along the stem to imitate a row of thorns. When really close they latch onto the next member's wingtips with their 'mouth' (pic3) making the whole line even more sturdy. The face seems specially shaped for the job (pic1). When lined up they seem very confident of their ploy and refuse to flee even when touched. The green and red colors are a perfect match with the younger stems of these trees.
About 10mm long.
On several young acacia saplings at Mt Morton nature reserve.
family: MEMBRACIDAE
subfamily: Centrotinae
tribe: Terentiini
http://bie.ala.org.au/species/urn:lsid:b...
Spotted on Apr 5, 2015
Submitted on Apr 6, 2015
14 Comments
stunning series!
I love these little beasties :) Nice series, Mark!
Thank you Frederic :)
That s a great serie!
awesome!
Thanks Rob. Pity they're not around at Christmas with all that red and green.
Great series Mark! cool treehoppers also.
Thanks Dixie. :)
Love the pics, description, everthing. These are new to me; never seen them before.
They really are very cute!
Thank you peoples. They really are kind of cute. Funny it took me 3 years to find the first one and suddenly they are everywhere. Another bio lesson.
Devious little critters! :)
Awesome Mark great series,congrats and thanks for sharing
Love at first sight :-)