Japanese maple leafhopper
The Japanese maple leafhopper is a tiny bug with see-through wings and a pointed head. It comes from eastern Asia, but it has travelled around the world on maple trees sold in garden shops. Now it lives in Europe, North America and Australia too.
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Fun facts
It was first found in Washington, D.C. in 1900, and in 1931 scientists worked out that it came from Japan.
It hides its eggs inside young twigs, so they are very hard to spot when trees are sold.
It reached Australia in 1997.
Its young are pointed at both the head and the tail.
Most asked questions about Japanese maple leafhopper
?Does the Japanese maple leafhopper harm trees?
It drinks maple sap, but scientists think it does very little damage.
?How big is the Japanese maple leafhopper?
Only about 4 to 5.5 millimetres long.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Japananus hyalinus
- Named by
- Osborn, 1900
- Group
- True bugs and cicadas
- Family
- Cicadellidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Hemiptera > Cicadellidae
- Lives on
- Asia, Europe, North America, Australia and Oceania
Where the facts come from
- Japananus hyalinus (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Keith Edkins. CC BY-SA 3.0, 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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