A 12-year effort by a pair of entomologists in Iowa solves some mysteries about an elusive planthopper species, Fitchiella robertsonii, including key host plants and environments. The 219 specimens they caught in Iowa prairies are 90 percent of F. robertsonii ever collected by scientists, marking a huge leap forward for prospective conservation of the species. (Photo by Marlin Rice, Ph.D.)

By Ed Ricciuti

Ed Ricciuti

Maybe it can’t top tall buildings in a single bound, but there’s a tiny, exceedingly rare planthopper with a leap so prodigious it can make its case as the Superman of the insect world. A male of a species dubbed the “ball-nosed planthopper” was observed by Iowa State University scientists covering 35 inches in a single leap, 250 times its length, which is only about the equivalent of the thickness of two stacked pennies.

The measurement was part of a 12-year study during which scientists for the first time observed details of the biology and ecology of the seldom-seen planthopper Fitchiella robertsonii. While it lacks an official common name recognized by the Entomological Society of America (ESA), the researchers call it “ball-nosed” because its beak is a shiny, spherical knob, which it can inflate with fluid and may help the planthoppers communicate with one another.

Published in July the Annals of the Entomological Society of America, the study produced the first description of the planthopper’s longevity, reproduction, motility, and seasonality and confirmed two prairie grasses as hosts for the species. The researchers also for the first time collected nymphs and adults with long wings, instead of the short, flightless wings seen in previous specimens.

Iowa State scientists initiated the research after another first, the accidental catch in 2008 of what turned out to be a single member of the species, never found before in Iowa. Co-author and entomologist M.J. Hatfield was collecting bees and wasps on a hill in Allamakee County at the northeastern tip of Iowa when a miniscule insect, unfamiliar to her, turned up in her pan trap, a yellow container filled with antifreeze killing agent. She recognized it as unusual, and indeed it was—and not just for Iowa.

Historically, the ball-nosed planthopper had been recorded from only a few observations in 16 states and Ontario, Canada. There is no guarantee it still exists in most of them, and in some states it is considered either rare or endangered. The 219 specimens caught during the newly reported research represent “90 percent of the world’s collection,” says lead author Marlin Rice, Ph.D., retired entomologist and affiliate professor in the Department of Plant Pathology, Entomology, and Microbiology at Iowa State University. Rice is a past president (2009), Fellow (2011), and Honorary Member (2015) of ESA.

A 12-year effort by a pair of entomologists in Iowa solves some mysteries about an elusive planthopper species, Fitchiella robertsonii, including key host plants and environments. While it lacks an official common name recognized by the Entomological Society of America, the researchers call F. robertsonii the “ball-nosed planthopper” because its beak is a shiny, spherical knob, which it can inflate with fluid and may help the planthoppers communicate with one another. (Photo by Marlin Rice, Ph.D.)

All the specimens were found in scattered remnants of Iowa’s native tall grass prairie, although of different types. Rice and Hatfield originally focused their search on the type of habitat in which the first F. robertsonii planthopper was trapped, xeric (dry) hill prairie. It is characterized by shallow, rocky soils created from underlying limestone, with steep, rocky slopes. Collecting nets in hand, the researchers had to clamber about slopes with a grade as steep as 60 percent, making “walking and simultaneously sweeping with a net challenging,” they write.

Rice puts it more colorfully. “You need the skills of a goat to negotiate those hillsides,” he says, noting that the locals, in fact, call those hills “goat prairies.”

At first, Rice and Hatfield write, “The species remained elusive.” It was an understatement. Four collecting trips in 2009 and 2011 resulted in a catch of only two of the planthoppers. Results improved in 2012, when they figured out that Indian grass (Sorghastrum nutans) was an important host plant and, says Rice, “the freeway opened up.”

They concentrated on sweeping Indian grass, including on other prairie types with different soils. All in all, they examined 35 remnants of native prairie and one reconstructed prairie. They found that another, secondary host for the planthopper was big bluestem (Andropogon girardii).

From 2008 to 2017, 19 different xeric hillside prairies with at least some Indian grass produced 91 specimens. They then expanded the search to include 27 loess hill prairies, with fertile, flour-like soil deposited by the wind, found in the western part of the state. Sixteen locations produced F. robertsonii specimens.

The most productive search site—in a wildlife management area that had previously hosted row crops and cattle, later heavily replanted with Indian grass and frequently burned in spring—produced 48 planthoppers from a half hour’s sweeping during a visit in 2017. However, during later visits, in 2020 and 2021, 500 sweeps ended with an empty net. Why is a mystery, especially since the place had plenty of both host grasses. The results also were nil from a survey of 11 virgin tallgrass and sand prairies in the central, northern, and northwestern parts of the state from 2013 to 2018.

A 12-year effort by a pair of entomologists in Iowa solves some mysteries about an elusive planthopper species, Fitchiella robertsonii, including key host plants and environments. Adult F. robertsonii planthoppers measure less than 5 millimeters in length (about the thickness of two stacked pennies), but they can jump 35 inches in a single leap. (Photo by Marlin Rice, Ph.D.)

The future of F. robertsonii in Iowa, according to Rice and Hatfield, “is tenuous at best.” Less than 0.1 percent of Iowa’s original tallgrass prairies remain from what once covered 85 percent of the state. Loss of habitat, already severely fragmented, remains a threat, especially since F. robertsonii is more or less flightless. Also a major threat is the encroachment of eastern red cedar (Juniperus virginiana), which can be controlled by burning to maintain grasses.

What may be a big plus for the planthopper is that it seems to survive burnings. Further research into the impact of burning on the species could help promote its survival, say the researchers.

Ed Ricciuti is a journalist, author, and naturalist who has been writing for more than a half century. His most recent book is called Bears in the Backyard: Big Animals, Sprawling Suburbs, and the New Urban Jungle (Countryman Press, June 2014). His assignments have taken him around the world. He specializes in nature, science, conservation issues, and law enforcement. A former curator at the New York Zoological Society, and now at the Wildlife Conservation Society, he may be the only man ever bitten by a coatimundi on Manhattan’s 57th Street.