JasonCryan

As in, "size matters"! Hahahahaha. Good suggestion, but that hypothesis doesn't seem to fit all too well, either. The real problem is that not all hoppers make the wax, and those that do are not phylogenetically linked (i.e., the wax producers don't form a monophyletic group). One possibility is that wax production could be the 'primitive' state that has been lost secondarily in various lineages, but that still doesn't explain the adaptive purpose of the wax....

I agree...none of the ideas floated to explain the waxy-filament production fit very well. It would be great to figure this weirdness out.....

Hi! A very handsome treehopper! This is in the family Membracidae, subfamily Membracinae. I don't know these as well as I should, but if I had to guess, I'd say it's the genus Metcalfiella or something close to that....

bayucca is right again....Pterodictya reticularis! Good call! Tom, your info is good...this planthopper typically occurs on that spiky tree (embarrassingly, I forget the scientific name of that tree just now; colloquially, we call it the 'monkey-no-climb' tree!).

Yup....bayucca is right....Dictyopharidae. Not sure which genus though! Pretty shot!

Definitely fascinating, and a nice photo!

We don't really understand what these waxy filaments are for. They probably are effective to distract predators (as bayucca wrote), but that doesn't explain why some of these planthoppers produce the wax and others don't. Other hypotheses include that the wax is a way of getting rid of excess waste, that it's a by-product of the bacterial endosymbionts associated with the bugs, etc...but none of these seem to explain this physiological condition well in evolutionary terms (i.e, why one species may produce the wax while another very closely related species does not). Another natural mystery to solve...!

great pic!

One of my favorite treehoppers! Nice pic!

Yup...I think you've got the tribe and genus right (Proconiini and Proconia). I need to get to know the leafhoppers better...! :)

Nice!