Beet leafhopper
| Beet leafhopper | |
|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Hemiptera |
| Family: | Cicadellidae |
| Genus: | Circulifer |
| Species: | C. tenellus |
| Binomial name | |
|
Circulifer tenellus (Baker, 1896) |
|
The beet leafhopper (Circulifer tenellus), also sometimes known as Neoaliturus tenellus, is a species of leafhopper which belongs to the family Cicadellidae in the order Hemiptera.
A lot of morphological diversity has been reported among populations of the beet leafhopper in the United States. Morphological descriptions of two different populations of beet leafhoppers from California and Mexico are presented here. The leaf hopper is described as a small insect, 3 – 3.5 mm in length, which is often greenish yellow, tan or olive in colour. The leaf hopper may have darker markings on its wings, pronotum, abdomen and head if it has developed during colder temperatures. The general shape of the body has been described as “wedge shaped” with the body tapering off at the posterior end of the insect.
The head of the insect is wider than the pronotum with distinct eyes and a curved anterior margin. The mouth parts, like that of all hemipterans, have stylets used for penetration into plants and sucking. The seta, or hair present on the body are uniceriate, meaning that they are arranged in a row are present on the hind tibia of the insect. One of the distinguishing feature of this species is also the presence of plates on males. For general information on insect anatomy see: Insect morphology.
Beet leafhoppers are polyphagous generalists which means that they are able to feed on various different types of host (biology) plants. The fact that these insects migrate during the spring and summer time to cultivated fields also means that they show a lot of variation in their host plant choices by season: feeding on desert weeds in the winter and feeding on cultivated fields in the summer. They also show incredible variation in food choices between populations in different states, and these choices may change depending on host plant diversity, availability, defenses, etc. In one study on host plant preferences of beet leafhoppers from California and New Mexico, researchers found that beet leafhoppers from California preferred to feed on sugar beet plants while those from New Mexico preferred to feed on kochia, Russian thistle and redwood pigweed plants. The study also found differences in short term and long term feeding preferences where both kinds of leaf hoppers initially settled on beet plants (when observed over a period of 2 days) and later moved to their preferred choices (when observed over 20 days). It is interesting to note that despite these differences, both species chose beet plants for laying eggs.
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Wikipedia