The Bug of the Day is the leafhopper. These attractive, slender, multicolored insects are often abundant on plants where they can feed by sucking the sap. This causes wilting and injury to grape, apple, clover, beet and other plants. Besides, leafhoppers carry virus diseases from plant to plant and thus become serious pests. Leafhoppers exude "honeydew" as they feed. This is a somewhat sweet surplus sap which attracts ants and bees, which feed on it. Leafhoppers are well known as prodigious jumpers. They are sometimes called dodgers because of the way they slip out of sight when disturbed. The female lays eggs in stems and leaves. Two or more generations are produced each year. Late eggs winter over and hatch in spring. Adults hibernate and emerge in spring also. The young that hatch resemble the adults and pass through 4 or 5 nymph stages before they mature. Leafhopper populations in fields may reach as high as a million per acre. Of some 2,000 known species, about 700 are found in the United States.
