Last week’s puzzler featured some weird looking insects hanging out with ants. I did it right after the post about the dog day cicada because this insect is related to cicadas. If you could see it under a microscope or blown up on a big screen you would notice the resemblance in the giant eyes. It’s an insect called a tree hopper.
The world of insects is just amazing with the sheer diversity of species. There are insects called tree hoppers and others called leaf hoppers, or plant hoppers. All, as you might suspect, can jump awesome distances. Tree hoppers differ from leaf hoppers in that they have an enlarged childlike part just behind their heads, called a pronotum. Leaf hoppers on the other hand are missing this shield and have one or more rows of small spines on their hind legs. Ants can have relationships with both leaf and tree hoppers.
Here are some tree hoppers and leaf hoppers.
Both tree hoppers and leaf hoppers are known form their sucking mouthparts. They feed on the sap of various plants. After they hatch out of eggs, they are called nymphs, and resemble the adults. They look like mini adults in the nymph stage, growing bigger and bigger until transforming into adults. Cicadas are in the same order.
Here’s a video taken last summer of an ant “milking” the hoppers for a drop of sweet honeydew. Watch as the ant goes to the butt end of each one, getting the insect to exude a drop of honeydew for it.
When I first saw these ants with these tiny, spiney-looking insects, I had no idea what they were. I knew ants will tend aphids in a symbiotic relationship where both insects benefit. The aphids gain protection from the ants from predators and in return give the ants a sweet liquid called honeydew. Turns out tree hoppers have a similar relationship with ants. Who knew? I certainly did not! But this blog has prompted me to learn many many things I may never have discovered. So I thank you, my readers for following along and giving me reason to post–and to learn.
I promise this week’s puzzler is a little easier!