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Ricania speculum
Ricania speculum (Walker, 1851). When I spotted this Ricaniid Planthopper, it appeared to have laid just laid 13 eggs, neatly spaced out along a leaf stem. At least, that is how it looked to me. The only thing that I could be sure of was that the hopper was Ricania speculum. As for the "eggs", I zoomed in on my pictures to get a better look and was surprised to see that these "eggs" were fuzzy. Who ever heard of such a thing as fuzzy eggs, but there was a glimmer of hope in that discovery. I have seen and taken photos of Ricaniid Hopper nymphs and they look kind of fuzzy because they produce a white waxy filament which looks something like the material on these "eggs". So all I had to do was find out what Ricaniid Hopper eggs look like. I searched online and found http://delphacid.s3.amazonaws.com/10579........ This is a very short scientific paper which shows pictures of the eggs of Ricania speculum and they match mine exactly. Now I can go out and look at these eggs every day and, hopefully get some pictures of the nymphs when they emerge.
This Ricania speculum and its eggs were spotted in our backyard on a Ben Oil Tree (Moringa oleifera) locally known as Malunggay.
I have always been fond of Ricania speculum as it was the first hopper that I photographed in the Philippines several years ago. More recently, just a few months ago when I posted one on Project Noah, someone commented that it looked like the face of an alien life form and the producers of "Star Trek" might like to use it. I couldn't agree more. It does look "alien".
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