Not A Leaf: Acanalonia planthopper on a stem, Schenley Park, 3 August 2019 (photo by Kate St. John)

9 July 2026

Now that Bug Season is in full swing it’s fun to find the bugs in camouflage.

Planthoppers are parasites that suck the juice from plants, though they rarely reach the pest level in their native range. They barely move when perched but if you jostle them they jump like grasshoppers. Plant.Hoppers. Every life stage uses camouflage to hide from predators.

Google Lens identified the bug at top as an Acanalonia planthopper that sucks the juice of woody plants. Usually green in color, the adult is trying to look like a leaf.

Some species of flatid planthoppers are white so how are they camouflaged?

Flatid planthoppers on yellow jewelweed, Schenley Park, 9 July 2012 (photo by Kate St. John)

The adult females secrete a white waxy substance to protect their eggs and young. The adults resemble moths as they hang out in a white fuzz zone.

White planthopper nymphs on stems (photo by Gyorgy Csoka, Hungary Forest Research Institute, Bugwood.org)

Their tiny nymphs are ghostly white with fuzzy, wispy tails. 

(guessing) Acanalonia planthopper nymph (photo by Albert (Bud) Mayfield, USDA Forest Service, Bugwood.org)

White planthopper nymph (photo by David Cappaert, Bugwood.org)

Planthoppers are parasites who are parasitized by a moth.

This well-camouflaged planthopper parasite caterpillar (Epipyrops exigua) feeds on the body fluids (haemolymph) of planthoppers and cicadas.

Planthopper parasite caterpillar (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

After he transforms into an adult, he is still camouflaged.

Planthopper parasite moth (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

I’ve never seen the caterpillar and moth but I’ll look more closely now when I find planthoppers.