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Sticker of Blue-green sharpshooter
Bug card No. 0554 of 4,939

Blue-green sharpshooter

Graphocephala atropunctata
Eats: PlantsTrue bugs and cicadasGardens and meadows6 legs

The blue-green sharpshooter is a small leafhopper with a blue-green colour. It lives on the west coast of the United States. Grape farmers keep a close eye on it, because it can make their vines sick.

Lives in
The west coast of the United States, Arizona and New Mexico, in gardens and vineyards
Top speed
about 1 km/h (0.62 mph)
On foot, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless to people. It does not bite or sting, but it can spread a sickness to grape vines.
What does it eat?
It drinks the watery sap that flows inside plant stems, including grape vines.
For real!Photo of Blue-green sharpshooter
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

It can carry tiny germs called bacteria that make grape vines sick. The sickness is called Pierce's disease.

2

The sick vines dry out from the tips and give fewer grapes.

3

Because of this, it causes big problems for vineyards in California.

you asked

Most asked questions about Blue-green sharpshooter

?Is the blue-green sharpshooter harmful to people?

No. It is harmless to people. It only causes trouble for grape vines.

?Why are farmers worried about the blue-green sharpshooter?

It can spread Pierce's disease, a plant sickness that makes grape vines dry out and die back.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Graphocephala atropunctata
Group
True bugs and cicadas
Family
Cicadellidae
Classification
Insecta > Hemiptera > Cicadellidae
Lives on
North America

Where the facts come from

  1. Graphocephala atropunctata (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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