Take a look at this fellow that I spotted on the doorframe of our back garage door last month. It was tiny and measured may 5 mm tops. (I’m guesstimating. I don’t usually measure in millimeters, but I know they’re preferred in the science world.) I used a macro on my phone to get these photos. I didn’t even really know what it looked like until later when I saw the images. WOW! It’s got to be the oddest looking insect I’ve ever found in our gardens.
Anyway, I haven’t had much input from fellow observers on iNaturalist. But the folks at Bugguide.net did confirm my tentative identification of Amyclini tribe (genus Amycle). “I can’t help with the ID, but that’s a great find,” wrote one guy. “What a cool bug.”
So Amyclini is in the weird family of lanternflies (Fulgoridae), which are planthoppers. This group is totally new to me. Here’s another weird one: The alligator bug (Fulgora laternaria), also called the peanut-headed lanternfly.
In that lanternflies are true bugs (and not flies), they behave like them, which means they use their piercing proboscis to feed on plants. According to Bug of the Week, “Lanternflies are relatives of aphids, cicadas, and shartpshooters…. They obtain nutrients by inserting soda straw-like mouthparts into the vascular system of the tree and removing sap.”
So far, I’ve only found one other lanternfly that has an alligator-shaped head like mine. And the odds of ever seeing another one in our gardens is probably next to never.
