Coppery leafhopper showing off its beautiful dance ✨

A slightly disheveled-looking leafhopper staring at me from atop his holly leaf perch! This guy was my last male olitoria of the year, and he looks adequately rough. His wings have lost their waxy brochosome coating, so they're nice and iridescent, but that comes at the cost of poor camouflage. He probably didn't have much time left, but, if he was successful in mating, I have a chance of seeing his offspring next year!

A small collection of J. olitoria nymphs to showcase how variable they can be, even when found in the same place! Even with all this color, some colorations are still missing—green and brown most notably. Despite their highly variable colors, these nymphs can still be easily IDed due to shared pattern traits and their signature curled posture, which they only share with a few other leafhoppers (in the US and Canada). I feel like a Pokémon collector trying to collect all the forms of this species' nymph when I put them all side by side like this lol!

A lovely female olitoria eyeing me cautiously from her stem perch! This is my first time seeing a teneral (soft from molting) individual in person, and it was exciting even if I'm very familiar with all of their possible appearances. Teneral females of this species have much more defined wing veins and banding, some even having almost completely black and white wings until they harden and dry into their signature coppery color. This lady is much further along than that, but she still has a much higher contrast pattern than a fully adult female. I think this in-between stage is gorgeous!

A peek at the many coppery leafhoppers I've been finding around this summer! The late-spring nymphs have all but disappeared and made way for a wonderful array of adults. They're far less diverse than their nymph forms, but adults of this species still display an impressive amount of visual diversity, especially for all being found in the same place. Much of this is due to adults being teneral, but after their exoskeleton fully hardens, differences in appearance are all due to genetics and brochosome coverage. Brochosomes are small, hydrophobic, waxy-looking particles that leafhoppers secrete and rub over themselves to keep their bodies clean and the hopper camouflaged from invertebrate predators. In the case of olitoria, dense patches of brochosomes appear yellow, like seen in the second image. When distributed evenly, they create a gorgeous, iridescent sheen across the entire hopper that can sometimes make it look near unrecognizable!

A couple of the few coppery leafhoppers I found while hiking this weekend! The day was very pleasant, and the insect life reflected that. I took a friend, and together we managed to find quite a few fun bugs, including a handful of hoppers! By this time of year, pretty much all male olitoria have died off, and all that remain are females looking for good spots to lay eggs before it gets too cold for them too. These females were both on fences, soaking up the sun and likely looking for nice wood to oviposit in. Unluckily for them, the fence isn't a good egg-housing candidate, as this species prefers to lay eggs in tree bark. There were plenty of trees around, though, so I have no doubt that they'll find a suitable spot soon!

Some out of focus images of my son because I love him so much.. I saw him again yesterday on the same plant, so he must like it where he is lol. Even after seeing tons of these guys, I still can't get over how cute they are, especially as nymphs! Their large, charismatic eyes, bright colors, and little dances have captivated me, I fear.