Identification, Images, & Information
For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada
Photo#1527290
Treehopper #2, with horn - Platycotis vittata

Treehopper #2, with horn - Platycotis vittata
Tracys Landing, Anne Arundel County, Maryland, USA
May 28, 2018
Looks like a Platycotis vitatta but want to check as some of the pictures in the guide look like this, some have different coloration. This one was resting on my car a short distance from the one with no horn on my garage.

I was curious as to why some have horns and some do not, maybe a male/female thing? Perhaps not as I found the article (link below) which says that there are subspecies. Using the key in the article, this one "Treehopper #2, with horn" would be Platycotis vitatta var. quadrivittata? Using the key "Treehopper #1, without horn" (https://bugguide.net/node/view/1527288) would perhaps be Platycotis vitatta var. lineata?

http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/orn/oak_treehopper.htm

While the treehoppers with horns are trying to look like thorns, why would an Oak Treehopper have horns as oak trees don't have thorns?

Images of this individual: tag all
Treehopper #2, with horn - Platycotis vittata Treehopper #2, with horn - Platycotis vittata

var. quadrivittata
Moved from Treehoppers.

Moved
Moved from ID Request.

The coolest thing...
is that the genes in the hopper that make the "horn" are the genes that used to make the 4th set of legs that all early insects once had.