Planthopper nymph - Cyrpoptus

Cyrpoptus

This is the nymph of a small Fulgorid, probably Cyrpoptus, although even that genus has nymphs no smaller than about 5 mm. The examples in our collection are uniformly tan or blackish, not maculated as is your specimen. I would have expected by its color that it is Alphina, but that genus has adults twice as large, so the nymphs ought to be more than 8 mm long.

Please watch for adults and later instar nymphs!

… Andy Hamilton, 8 January, 2009 - 8:53am

....

Lois O'Brien sent me an email yesterday and here is what she had to say....

"Your specimen is a planthopper, a Fulgoridae (one of 20 families of Fulgoroidea). Adults feed on sap through the bark. I don't know that we have any records from Oklahoma, and I don't know how many Texas species get up there, and I don't know if nymphs necessarily feed on the same host plant as the adult. So anything you can find out would be very helpful.

It is most likely to be one of two genera. Cyrpoptus has 11 species, and they are found from Maryland to Kansas and south to the Canal Zone, with 2 species also from Cuba. Jim Kramer at the USNM did a paper on them in 1978 and says they have been taken on such diverse plants as lima beans, cotton, and pine and Baccharis. Not very helpful since that is one species from Florida. He does figure one nymph, which I will copy and send to you.

The other possibility is Calyptoproctus marmoratus. I have-somewhere-one specimen I thought might be it. I couldn't find it now, and have to start cooking, This species is interesting because it is either one species or 3 or 4. There are specimens in Arizona that can be sorted into three color patterns, with some changes in size of cells in the wing and height of carinae, but the tails are the same. One of these color patterns was found on cottonwood last year. I'm hoping to catch adults at light this year and see if I can keep them alive on branches in water long enough to lay eggs and see what their host plants are. Its distribution is from the east coast to Arizona-I don't kknow how far north, but at least N. Carolina, I think.

So if you see this thing again, and find it on a plant, please put some netting over it and try to raise it to an adult."

… Sam Houston, 8 January, 2009 - 9:45am