See under cicadas.
Species-rich family (Auchenorrhyncha) of insects, also called "chirps" because of the characteristic sound. Most of the approximately 40,000 species are very strikingly coloured. All of them have a proboscis and a sucking pump for feeding, which is done by piercing and sucking out certain parts of the plant. Most species are restricted or specialised to very specific food plants. The body length is usually between 2 and 40 millimetres, in a few species up to 70 millimetres. Because of their jumping ability (hence leafhoppers), they are often confused with grasshoppers, to which they are not related. They can jump up to 70 centimetres from a standing position. In comparison, a human being would have to jump 200 metres.
Many phloem-sucking cicadas are plant pests. The pests bite the leaf veins and suck up the sugary sap of the phloem in the leading tissue. In the process, phytoplasmas and viruses are transmitted, which then cause very dangerous vine diseases such as flavescence dorée and pierce disease. A suction track or typical leaf damage pattern of the blood cicada can be seen on the bottom right. The appearance is similar for other cicada species.
The following cicada species can occur on grapevines and cause the damage mentioned above:
The American grapevine cicada (Scaphoideus titanus) causes flavescence dorée (golden yellowing); see there.
The bright green buffalo cicada or humpbacked cicada (Strictocephala bisionia) was introduced from North America at the end of the 19th century, presumably with fruit rices, and has proliferated in Europe. Their eggs overwinter in one-year-old shoots of...
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