Cicadella viridis

Cicadella viridis
Cicadella viridis, dorsal view
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Subphylum:	Hexapoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Hemiptera
Family:	Cicadellidae
Genus:	Cicadella
Species:	C. viridis
Binomial name
Cicadella viridis (Linnaeus, 1758)

Cicadella viridis, the 'Green Leafhoppers', is a species of belonging to the family Cicadellidae subfamily Cicadellinae.

This species is present in most of Europe, in eastern Palearctic ecozone, in the Near East, in the Nearctic ecozone, and in the Oriental ecozone.

Cicadella viridis, male

The adults reach 6–9 millimetres (0.24–0.35 in) of length, but the females are quite larger than the males. Adult leafhoppers can mostly be encountered from July through October in wet meadows, near marshes or in swampy habitats, but sometimes live also in drier areas.

Their pronotum is green and yellow. The front head is pale yellow, with two black spots near the compound eyes. The forewings are turquoise green in the females, blue or dark bluish in males (sexual dimorphism).

They are polyphagous, feeding on the sap of various species of herbaceous plants, mainly Juncus (Juncaceae sp.), Carex (Cyperaceae sp.), Holcus (Poaceae sp.) and Fabaceae species.

Cicadella viridis, nymph

The larvae are yellowish and have two brownish stripes running from head to the end of the abdomen. Cicadella viridis may have one or more generations per year. This species overwinters in the egg stage.

References

• H. Nickel - The leafhoppers and plant hoppers of Germany (Hemiptera, Auchenorrhyncha) - Patterns and strategies in a highly diverse group of phytophagous insects - Pensoft, Sofia and Moskau 2003

External links

• Fauna Europaea
• Biolib
• Naturespot