''Cicadella viridis'', the green leafhopper, is a species belonging to the subfamily

Cicadellinae CicadellinaeLatreille (1825) is a leafhopper subfamily in the family Cicadellidae. Selected genera * '' Bothrogonia'' * '' Cicadella'' * ''Cofana ''Cofana'' is a genus of leafhoppers belonging to the family Cicadellidae. ''Cofana'' speci ...

of the family Cicadellidae.

Distribution

This species is present in most of

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

, in eastern

Palearctic realm The Palearctic or Palaearctic is the largest of the eight biogeographic realms of the Earth. It stretches across all of Eurasia north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa. The realm consists of several bioregions: the Euro-Sibe ...

, in the

Near East The ''Near East''; he, המזרח הקרוב; arc, ܕܢܚܐ ܩܪܒ; fa, خاور نزدیک, Xāvar-e nazdik; tr, Yakın Doğu is a geographical term which roughly encompasses a transcontinental region in Western Asia, that was once the hist ...

, in the

Nearctic realm The Nearctic realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting the Earth's land surface. The Nearctic realm covers most of North America, including Greenland, Central Florida, and the highlands of Mexico. The parts of North America t ...

, and in the

Indomalayan realm The Indomalayan realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms. It extends across most of South and Southeast Asia and into the southern parts of East Asia. Also called the Oriental realm by biogeographers, Indomalaya spreads all over the Indi ...

Habitat

These leafhoppers inhabit rough grassy areas, peat bogs and mires, wet meadows, near marshes or in swampy habitats, but sometimes live also in drier areas.

Description

The adult males of ''Cicadella viridis'' can reach a length of , but the females are quite larger than the males, reaching .J. K. Lindsey
Commanster
Naturespot.org: ''Cicadella viridis'' (green leaf hopper)
/ref> Their pronotum and scutellum are green and yellow. The front head is pale yellow, with two black spots near the compound eyes. The forewings are turquoise green in the females, blue or dark bluish in males (

sexual dimorphism Sexual dimorphism is the condition where the sexes of the same animal and/or plant species exhibit different morphological characteristics, particularly characteristics not directly involved in reproduction. The condition occurs in most ani ...

). The abdomen is bluish-black. The larvae are yellowish and have two brownish stripes running from head to the end of the abdomen.

Biology

Adult leafhoppers can mostly be encountered from July through October. These leafhoppers are

polyphagous Feeding is the process by which organisms, typically animals, obtain food. Terminology often uses either the suffixes -vore, -vory, or -vorous from Latin ''vorare'', meaning "to devour", or -phage, -phagy, or -phagous from Greek φαγε ...

, feeding on the sap of various species of herbaceous plants, mainly ''

Juncus effusus ''Juncus effusus'', with the common names common rush or soft rush, is a perennial herbaceous flowering plant species in the rush family Juncaceae. In North America, the common name soft rush also refers to '' Juncus interior''. Distribution ' ...

'' (

Juncaceae Juncaceae is a family of flowering plants, commonly known as the rush family. It consists of 8 genera and about 464 known species of slow-growing, rhizomatous, herbaceous monocotyledonous plants that may superficially resemble grasses and s ...

sp.),

Carex ''Carex'' is a vast genus of more than 2,000 species of grass-like plants in the family Cyperaceae, commonly known as sedges (or seg, in older books). Other members of the family Cyperaceae are also called sedges, however those of genus ''Carex'' ...

and ''

Scirpus sylvaticus ''Scirpus sylvaticus'', the wood clubrush, is a species of flowering plant in the Cyperaceae, sedge family. ''Scirpus sylvaticus'' can reach 1 m, and has triangular stems. ''S. sylvaticus'' widespread in Eurasia, is very common in the European ...

'' (

Cyperaceae The Cyperaceae are a family of graminoid (grass-like), monocotyledonous flowering plants known as sedges. The family is large, with some 5,500 known species described in about 90 genera, the largest being the "true sedges" genus ''Carex'' w ...

sp.), ''

Holcus mollis ''Holcus mollis'', known as creeping soft grass or creeping velvet grass, is a species of Poaceae, grass, native to Europe and western Asia. Description ''Holcus mollis'' is a Rhizome, rhizomatous perennial grass found in woods and hedgerows, ...

'' (

Poaceae Poaceae () or Gramineae () is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos and the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in lawns an ...

sp.), ''

Galium palustre ''Galium palustre'', the common marsh bedstraw or simply marsh-bedstraw, is a herbaceous annual plant of the family Rubiaceae. This plant is widely distributed, native to virtually every country in Europe, plus Morocco, the Azores, Turkey, Turkm ...

'' (

Rubiaceae The Rubiaceae are a family of flowering plants, commonly known as the coffee, madder, or bedstraw family. It consists of terrestrial trees, shrubs, lianas, or herbs that are recognizable by simple, opposite leaves with interpetiolar stipules ...

) and

Fabaceae The Fabaceae or Leguminosae,International Code of Nomenc ...

species. ''Cicadella viridis'' may have one or more generations per year. In the colder parts of Europe, there is one generation per year, in the warmer parts two, and in some regions even three generations. In the temperate

climate of Europe Europe is generally characterized by a temperate climate. Most of Western Europe has an Oceanic climate, in the Köppen climate classification, featuring cool to warm summers and cool winters with frequent overcast skies. Southern Europe has a di ...

, females lay eggs in late August - early November. This species overwinters in the egg stage. Nymphs appear in the spring. The transformation of nymphs into adults occurs in June or in July. The 'Green Leafhoppers' are mainly preyed by spiders (''

Parasteatoda tepidariorum ''Parasteatoda tepidariorum'', the common house spider or American house spider, is a spider species of the genus '' Parasteatoda'' with a cosmopolitan distribution. Common house spiders are synanthropic and live in and near human dwellings. The ...

'', ''

Dolomedes fimbriatus The raft spider, scientific name ''Dolomedes fimbriatus'', is a large semi-aquatic spider of the family Pisauridae found throughout north-western and central Europe. It is one of only two species of the genus ''Dolomedes'' found in Europe, the ot ...

'', ''

Tetragnatha extensa ''Tetragnatha extensa'' is a species of spider found across the Northern Hemisphere. It has an elongate body, up to long, and adopts a straight line posture when alarmed. It lives on low vegetation in damp areas, and feeds on flying insects whic ...

''). Possible parasites are several

Dryinidae Dryinidae is a cosmopolitan family of solitary wasps. Its name comes from the Greek ''drys'' for oak: Latreille named the type genus ''Dryinus'' because the first species was collected in an oak plant in Spain. The larvae are parasitoids of the ...

species. Moreover several parasitoids of the family

Mymaridae The Mymaridae, commonly known as fairyflies or fairy wasps, are a family of chalcidoid wasps found in temperate and tropical regions throughout the world. The family contains around 100 genera with 1400 species. Fairyflies are very tiny insects ...

(

Anagrus ''Anagrus'' is a genus of fairyflies, in the family Mymaridae, comprising over 90 species, a number of which are employed as biocontrol agents. For classificatory purposes, the genus is divided into three subgenera ''Anagrella'', ''Anagrus'' and ...

species) lay their eggs in eggs of these leafhoppers.Elisabetta Chiappini, Maria Luisa Dindo, Ilaria Negri & Luca Sighinolf
In vitro rearing of Anagrus breviphragma (Hymenoptera: Mymaridae), an egg parasitoid of Cicadella viridis (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae), from second instar larva to adult on diets without insect components
European Journal of Entomology, 2004. — Vol. 101. — P. 419–422. — ISSN 1210-5759

Gallery

File:Cicadella viridis - a Leafhopper nymph - Flickr - S. Rae.jpg, Nymph of ''Cicadella viridis'' File:Cicadellidae - Cicadella viridis-1.JPG, Male File:Ficheiro-Araña alimentándose de Auchenorrhyncha. Bastavales, Brión, 090905.jpg, ''C. viridis'' preyed by a spider (''

'') File:Cicadella viridis.ogv, Video clip

References

External links

Biolib: ''Cicadella viridis''
* * {{Taxonbar, from=Q838596 Cicadellini Hemiptera of Asia Hemiptera of Europe Insects of the Middle East Insects described in 1758 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus Articles containing video clips