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Sticker of Mexican treehopper
Bug card No. 2861 of 4,939

Mexican treehopper

Membracis mexicana
Eats: PlantsTrue bugs and cicadasRainforests and jungles6 legs

The Mexican treehopper is a small bug that sits on plant stems. The adults are black with yellow markings. Its babies start out black and then turn white with three black dots and a red belt.

Lives in
From California down to Colombia and Ecuador
Top speed
about 1 km/h (0.62 mph)
On foot, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless to people.
What does it eat?
Like other treehoppers, it sucks sap from plants. It sometimes feeds on crops like avocado.
For real!Photo of Mexican treehopper
Picture by Katja Schulz from Washington, D. C., USA. CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

Its babies change colour as they grow, from black to white with black dots.

2

Farmers see it as a small pest on avocado trees.

3

It is a treehopper, a kind of bug with a big shield on its back.

you asked

Most asked questions about Mexican treehopper

?What does the Mexican treehopper eat?

It sucks sap from plants, including avocado trees.

?What does a Mexican treehopper baby look like?

First black, then white with three black dots and a reddish belt in the middle.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Membracis mexicana
Group
True bugs and cicadas
Family
Membracidae
Classification
Insecta > Hemiptera > Membracidae
Lives on
North America, South America

Where the facts come from

  1. Membracis mexicana (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
  2. Picture by Katja Schulz from Washington, D. C., USA. CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.

If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.

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