Friday, September 30, 2011

How about those eyes?


My local crop of Oak Treehoppers has maintained its position on my Black Oak trees ever since September 8, when I first spotted them. These nymphs have about doubled in size, and still have their brilliant coloration. They are about 6 mm long, halfway to adult size. They hardly move at all. The adult mama that perches nearby rarely moves either. When I poke her with a leaf or pine needle, she'll fluff her wings a little, but mostly crawls to the far side of the twig. She does that when I approach with my camera, too. Basically, pretty unflappable. Rarely cause any harm to the trees, and this year there are so few that it's safe to say they cause no harm at all.
I hope some of these will mature to the adult form that has red and white longitudinal stripes. That would be prettier than the current mom of the group which is sort of olive drab with pale yellow spots.

1 comment:

  1. I just recently found these on an oak of mine and was worried they may harm the oak.

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