9 July 2026

Now that Bug Season is in full swing it’s fun to find the bugs in camouflage.

Planthoppers are parasites that suck the juice from plants, though they rarely reach the pest level in their native range. They barely move when perched but if you jostle them they jump like grasshoppers. Plant.Hoppers. Every life stage uses camouflage to hide from predators.

Google Lens identified the bug at top as an Acanalonia planthopper that sucks the juice of woody plants. Usually green in color, the adult is trying to look like a leaf.

Some species of flatid planthoppers are white so how are they camouflaged?

The adult females secrete a white waxy substance to protect their eggs and young. The adults resemble moths as they hang out in a white fuzz zone.

Their tiny nymphs are ghostly white with fuzzy, wispy tails. 

Planthoppers are parasites who are parasitized by a moth.

This well-camouflaged planthopper parasite caterpillar (Epipyrops exigua) feeds on the body fluids (haemolymph) of planthoppers and cicadas.

After he transforms into an adult, he is still camouflaged.

I’ve never seen the caterpillar and moth but I’ll look more closely now when I find planthoppers.