Patty spotted these on a Coneflower growing in our side garden.
I spotted a few a couple of days before. But there were twenty plus on the coneflower stem.
Patty spends a lot of time looking at the plants in the garden, where among other things she hunts for interesting bugs. And I'm often the beneficiary of her searches.
And then the fun starts. Trying to get good pictures. Not always easy. Then I try to ID these things. A puzzle I enjoy, if frustrating at times.
This was another critter I needed the folks at BugGuide to help out with. And the first person to ID them was a woman named Yurika Alexander, who lives in nearby Atco, NJ.
Patty and I figured these were a type of hopper. So I first looked at leafhoppers and that led me to treehoppers. And when posting to BugGuide I had entitled my ID request "Tree Hopper Nymph?".
I didn't even know that 'planthoppers' were a thing. My new bit of knowledge for that day.
🐝 🐛 🦋 🐞 🐜 🦟 🦗 🕷 🦂
After photographing these we went to the Poconos to visit our friend Edie. And when we returned several days later unsurprisingly they were gone. Off to wherever plant hopper nymphs go. We'll be looking for the adults soon enough methinks.
🦂 🕷 🦗 🦟 🐜 🐞 🦋 🐛 🐝
After two years of Yard Critter of the Week Posts, I've decide to just have Yard Critter posts whenever I have an interesting critter to share. I've got a back log and posting weekly is too infrequent.
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