No I did not travel to Costa Rica. The colorful, odd but lovable oak treehopper above flew in front of me on a path at the local arboretum here in Oregon and landed on the underside of a leaf. I excitedly took pictures with two different cameras for just under four minutes, and then it flew away.
The thorn-shaped treehopper is interesting from every angle. It has side “points” as well as the unicorn head-topper. Weirdly, other individuals in the same species can have a rounded “helmet” head rather than a pointed horn. Beyond weirdly, there is also another color morph for this species, Platycotis vittata, and it’s a dark green-gray with yellow spots. In fact, many if not all of them transition from one bold pattern to the other. Here’s my column for Mount Pisgah on the oak treehopper, which goes into the color change a bit more.
I was lucky enough to have this Membracidae family insect crawl on my finger and model all its sides. These true bugs raise their young in colonies, with the adults looking after the nymphs as they molt through five stages of growth. Most insects lay eggs and leave, so treehoppers are unusual in their family structure too.
I assumed treehoppers would be like leafhoppers, and hop or jump to get around, but this one could fly very well. It flexed its wings one time here, then settled down for a moment before it took off.
After my encounter with the oak treehopper, I was on a nature high for several hours. It’ll be a highlight of the year, for sure.
Ticklehead 