Rush cicada
| Rush cicada | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Cicadella viridis ( Cicadella viridis ), female |
||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Cicadella viridis | ||||||||||||
| ( Linnaeus , 1758) |
The cicadella viridis or green leafhopper ( Cicadella viridis , Syn. : Tettigella viridis ) is a Rundkopfzikade from the family of leafhoppers (Cicadellidae) within the order of Hemiptera (Hemiptera). The lively green to blue-green insects are very active in movement, especially on warm days, especially in the months of June and July, and are usually found in high numbers in wet meadows and other wet habitats with a high proportion of rushes ( Juncus ).
distribution and habitat
The rush cicada has a Palearctic distribution, it occurs from Europe to Siberia, in the south to North Africa. It lives in various wetland biotopes such as wet meadows, swamps , intermediate moors , upland moor edges and forest edges. Sometimes it colonizes drier habitats.
features
The sexes of the green leaf hoppers are colored differently ( sexual dimorphism ). While the females are always monochrome blue-green, the forewings of the males are predominantly blueberry blue, sometimes also tinted blue-black. The animals are medium-sized and reach body lengths between 5.7 and 9 millimeters, with the females becoming significantly larger than the males. The body outline is elongated. It is characterized by a vesicular bulging head and a face with fine black and yellow stripes. Also noticeable are two large, polygonal and black spots on the yellow-green vertex between the complex eyes . The antennae are short and consist of two strong base members and a wafer-thin flagellum. The larvae are yellowish and have brown longitudinal stripes from the head to the end of the abdomen.
The very similar cicada ( Cicadella lasiocarpa ) is rarer and significantly slimmer in body. There are no color differences between the sexes in this species. The green color is stronger and yellower than that of the rush plant hoppers and the central apex spots are usually smaller and more rounded.
Way of life
The animals feed on plant juices, which they ingest with their specially built, piercing-sucking mouthparts . They are polyphagous, which means they use a variety of different plant species as food. They mainly use the xylem sap that rises in the plant from rushes (Juncaceae), sedges (Cyperaceae) and sweet grasses (Poaceae).
The rush leaf hoppers are hemimetabolic , which means that the larvae develop directly. They and the adult animals basically have the same body structure. With increasing age, the systems for the wings and genital fittings grow and grow. The animals go through five larval stages. In Central Europe they form one to two generations, in the south of their range also three or more generations per year. They overwinter in the ice stage. Adult animals appear in warmer regions from the beginning of May, in colder areas from the beginning of July. They can be found until around mid-October.
literature
The information comes from the following literature:
- R. Biedermann & R. Niedringhaus: The cicadas of Germany - identification tables for all species. Fründ, Scheeßel 2004, ISBN 3-00-012806-9 .
- R. Remane & Ekkehard Wachmann : Cicadas - get to know, observe. Naturbuch Verlag, Augsburg 1993, ISBN 3-89440-044-7 .
- H. Nickel: The leafhoppers and planthoppers of Germany (Hemiptera, Auchenorrhyncha): Patterns and strategies in a highly diverse group of phytophagous insects. Pensoft, Sofia and Moscow 2003, ISBN 954-642-169-3 .
Web links
- Cicadella viridis in Fauna Europaea
- www.natur-in-nrw.de
- Green dwarf cicada (Tettigella = Cicadella viridis). Federal Office for Forests (Austria), accessed on August 28, 2009 (damage images).