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Project Noah Nature School
Homalodisca vitripennis
This is a Glassy-Winged Sharpshooter emerging from it's last instar into adulthood. This species excretes a liquid while it feeds, shooting it out onto leaves. When I approach the adults, they spray it right at me! It's a good defense. If that doesn't deter a threat, they fly away with their glassy-looking wings. The video shows the sharpshooter halfway emerged to all the way out. There are still shots as well. I have the fourth or fifth instar spotting at: http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/728.... The adult spotting at: http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/719...
This hopper was on a Perez's Sea Lavender plant early on a foggy morning.
There are tons of these in our yard. They prefer areas around the Creeping Lantana. They're native to northeastern Mexico and spread into the United States, where it's an agricultural pest! This insect "is a vector of several plant diseases including phony peach disease, Pierce's disease of grape and Oleander leaf scorch." - nathistoc.bio.uci.edu. I shot this with my compact Canon PowerShot G12 using the scene mode of Kids & Pets and manual focus.
Spotted on Sep 20, 2011
Submitted on Sep 20, 2011
23 Comments
Thanks. Timing was definitely on my side this day!
Great timing!
Thank you :) This is one of my favorite hopper spottings but any creature emerging is beautiful to watch!
Can't say anything!
Thank you Carol! They're so cool looking with their see-through wings and colors. The gross part is they actually squirt urine at you. LOL The video shows it.
I looked it up. A leaf hopper! It is beautiful!
WOW! Never seen anything like it before. Never heard of this one. A Hopper? What kind.
Thank you KarenP! Sorry my notification was turned off for a while :)
Very cool series. Thanks for posting. I've never seen anything like it!!
Thank you! The sharpshooter was still on the same plant today, all grown up :)
Wow! That's a precious video! Thanks for sharing.
Anita, my exact thoughts!
wow, that's so cool!
Fantastic series!
It was amazing to watch in person. I kept thinking how much I really wanted at least a monopod to capture it better :) I know these are pests but it's still amazing to watch renewed life.
Amazing moment and wonderful photos/video. Wow!
Very cute!! Very educational too.!! it must have been quite a moment for you as is for the newly emerged insect!
Thank you :) It was a good spotting day!
Terrific series of photos and video!
fantastic job - great series
Outstanding find...great series & video...I love it.
Thank you misako.hill :) I was lucky to find this as it was emerging!
Cool video!