Torpedo bug
The torpedo bug is a bright green planthopper that looks just like a small leaf. Its pointy wings fold over its body like a steep roof. Only its pointed head and the tips of its legs peek out.
How big is it?
How long is it?
How big is Torpedo bug compared to YOU?
Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
A mother lays about 90 to 110 eggs in a flat cushion on a leaf.
The egg cushions turn from white to black, because a fungus grows on the empty shells.
Its babies are white with fluffy waxy tufts at the end of their bodies.
In Hawaii it is called the torpedo bug, but in Australia and New Zealand it is the green planthopper.
Steel blue ladybirds love to eat its egg cushions.
Most asked questions about Torpedo bug
?Is the torpedo bug harmful?
Not to people. It drinks plant sap and can be a pest on citrus trees.
?How big is the torpedo bug?
About 1 centimetre long.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Siphanta acuta
- Group
- True bugs and cicadas
- Family
- Flatidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Hemiptera > Flatidae
- Lives on
- Australia and Oceania, North America, Africa
- Also known as
- Green planthopper, Leaf bug
Where the facts come from
- Siphanta acuta (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 Nicola van Berkel. CC BY-SA 4.0, 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.
Bug Wiki honey jar For grown-ups: Bug Wiki is free, with no ads and no tracking. A small tip helps keep it online.Leave a tip
Pharaoh cicada
Spotted lanternfly
Brown marmorated stink bug
Cochineal
Boxelder bug
Western conifer seed bug
Bloxworth snout
Treble bar
Black-striped orchard spider
Hoary leafcutter bee
Viper's bugloss moth
Abberton weevil