It’s time for a new ID Challenge, this one from my recent trip to Brazil. I don’t expect this to be a terribly difficult challenge, so whoever wins is going to do so by gaining bonus points for providing detail about what is shown here in addition to correct taxonomic assignments.
See ID Challenge #2 for a detailed explanation of the rules
Copyright © Ted C. MacRae
Beetles In The Bush 
Order: Hemiptera
Suborder: Auchenorrhyncha
Family: Aetalionidae
Genus: Aetalion
Species: reticulatum
The individual pictured here is a female and she is guarding her egg mass. Females lay clutches of up to 100 eggs, which are covered in a viscous secretion.
Sweet – 2 pts each for order, family, genus, and species, plus a 2 pt bonus for noting the female’s egg guarding behavior gives you 10 pts and the early lead.
Hi Ted. Firstly apologies – we have much more mundane insects here in the UK so I’m going to pass on your id challenge. Great blog, however.
I wonder if you’d be willing to add my blog to your ‘Insects & inverts’ links? I’m involved with running a 3 year project in the UK called Plants for Bugs. We’re essentially looking at the influence of different planting shemes (from British natives to exotics) on invertebrates. If you’d care to take a look at our webpages and my blog, I’d welcome some feedback – visit http://www.rhs.org.uk/plants4bugs
Thanks, Helen
Hi Helen. The sidebar links are reserved for blogs, but I’m happy to give your project a tip of the hat. Nice to see folks giving insects and invertebrates serious attention in wildlife gardening.
I have quickly identified the object of this photo. It is a tiny stain glass window. The piece of art must have been dropped in the Brazilian forest. Note the delicate insertion of rubies at one end of the piece along with the beautiful choice of amber and onyx on the leg-like appendages. It is a wonderful specimen which has brought you, the finder, unmeasurable wealth.
nellie
The wings really do look like stained glass windows.
2 pts for making me smile this morning 🙂
Ted, Thanks for stopping by my blogs, especially the waverlytotahoe.blogspot.com blog. I plan on writing as soon as I get to go somewhere. For that to happen, my husband needs some time off again. He retired then took a short-term job that is still happening. All this snowy weather keeps me thinking of somewhere warm but It seems like we might have to leave USA to find that. I’m learning some things from your blog.
nellie
Thanks, nellie – I’m enjoying reading about your travels through some of the same areas than have enamored me over the past few years. Glad you’re finding something of interest here as well.
Oops, sorry Ted. I should have made clear – I do have a blog (called Plants for Bugs) which can be viewed at http://mygarden.rhs.org.uk/blogs/science__advice/default.aspx
Regards, Helen
I don’t have too much time, and I fear I won’t do very well on this one. I did find one other image of this species with Google, from the same region, but it was unidentified. So…
Homoptera, Membracidae.
It’s a female, and she appears to have just oviposited in the stem. She is depositing a coating of foam over the oviposition site which will harden to protect the eggs.
Homoptera is right, and although Membracidae is a good guess it’s not quite right.
You are right, however, about the female coating her egg masses with protective foam.
4 pts!
I’d say it’s some kind of leafhopper (family Cicadellidae), and as for what it’s doing, it looks like it is standing on a mass of some sort, so I’ll say it is either laying or guarding eggs.
And the blemishes on the plant stem could be spots where it either fed, or injected eggs.
Not a leafhopper (though it certainly looks like one). However, it is guarding its egg mass, so 2 pts for that.
You’ll get partial credit for implying the order (Hemiptera) with your family choice but not actually stating it, so your total for this challenge is 3 pts.
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