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Project Noah Nature School
Graphocephala coccinea
This species of leafhopper produces a honeydew like substance that contains great amounts of sugar through its anus, often causing ants to care for them as if they were aphids. You can see the ant licking the substance in photo 1. This benefits the leaf hopper too as the ants provide some protection from predators, and also remove the honeydew before it has a chance to attract fungal infections.
Urban
Spotted on Sep 30, 2013
Submitted on Oct 1, 2013
12 Comments
Hehe, very true LE!
ant---PHOTOBOMB!
Thank you Adarsha!
Such a valuable spotting n info Karen :)
Haha, yes Marsya, you couldn't make up that fact!
Honeydew from anus? Cool fact :D great spotting Karen!
Thank you Pradeep!
This is such a valuable info about the leafhoppers very nice!!
Thank you for your kind words Marta! It was very interesting to watch & in hindsight I wish I had taken a video!
Wow! I had no idea that leafhoppers were also "milked" by ants! Nice spotting and thanks for sharing this info!
It should be an SOTD!
Thanks Carol! It was very interesting to watch & the hopper didn't seem bothered by the ants attention at all - maybe he enjoyed it! :)
WOW! This is really great! Thanks for the information.