Our Observation of the Week is this Leptocentrus taurus treehopper, seen in India by @adit!
A student in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, Adit Jeyan tells me that “nature and wildlife have always fascinated me ever since I was a child.” About a year ago, he started photographing birds, as well as other wildlife, such as the bug seen above.
“There's a place near the beach where I live that has a lot of small trees and shrubs,” he explains.
It's usually quite crowded as people come with their families to enjoy the place. I go there often because it has a rich variety of insects and arachnids and also birds during the migratory season. I stumbled upon this during one of those trips to the place. He was just around 1 cm in length.
The bug he photographed, Leptocentrus taurus, is a member of the family Membracidae, or typical treehoppers. Like all bugs in the order Hemiptera, treehoppers have mouthparts used for piercing and sucking. Some bugs, like the assassin bugs, use this for predation, but most bugs, including the treehoppers, feed on plant liquids. The pronotums, or front three sections of the thorax, are often large and elaborate, as can be seen in Adit’s photo. Some resemble plant thorns, and others mimic ants - excellent for camouflage. And yes, they “hop” with the aid of their wings.
Adit (above), says “I started using iNat in the beginning for identifying the species I photographed…
[it] has taught me about a lot of species of wildlife and I've learned how to identify wildlife in the field thanks to iNat. I had never known that such a rich diversity of wildlife could be found around in the city where I live.
I am still in school but I want to become an Environmentalist when I grow up.
- by Tony Iwane.
- Check out all 10k+ treehopper observations on iNat, ranked by favorites!
- Tree hoppers use vibrations to communicate with each other, as discussed in this video.
Comments
Great photograph, Adit. Good luck to you in your quest to become an environmentalist. We need them more than ever!
Great photo!!
What an incredibly fabulous treehopper! Thank you Adit for introducing us to him!
@steven-cyclist -- I know you will like this one.
@ginsengandsoon -- I imagine you will also go nuts over this.
Wonderful photo and story. Keep taking photos Adit.
Amazing bug! Great photograph! Great good luck in your studies!
Great photo, keep up the good work on your lovely country.
Great photo.
beautiful photo!
Adit , you are doing a great job & don't forget to involve your friends too.
Great Shot!
Fantastic capture!
Great going @adit and @jeyan So happy to see your observation selected as Observation of the week. This is really a cool capture.
Thanks everyone! It's a humbling experience for me
Congratulations for having the, "Observation of the Week", a well deserved honor for the fantastic photo of a fantastic insect. Keep those posts coming!
It looks like a creature from "Star Wars" or "Lord of the Rings." How amazing is our real world!
Lovely !!
A quite amazing creature!!! Great Photo!
It IS stunning! What a cool looking creature. Nice job, adit.
Fantastic photo! Thank you :)
adit me to i am still in school and always love trees and plants since childhood
great job adit
Excellent!
Great shot! Thanks for sharing!
Cool looking insect!
congrats this is an amazing shot, reminds me of this one I saw in China: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/4511098. I wish I had had a better camera like yours at the time.
Wow, what an amazing shot! You deserve the observation of the week. Not only with the quality of the picture but for teaching me such insects exist. iNaturlist has taught me so much in a very short time. I want to echo the comment about becoming an environmentalist as we need them more than ever, by argyl.
Great, Adit. With such a keen sense of observation and a natural interest in the environment, you will surely achieve your goal of becoming an environmentalist. Waiting to see more such pictures from you.
thanks everyone for your kind words.
Nice write-up about Adit here! https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/energy-and-environment/the-boy-who-met-a-treehopper/article29431055.ece
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