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A leafhopper is the common name for any species from the family Cicadellidae. These minute insects, colloquially known as hoppers, are plant feeders that suck plant sap from grass, shrubs, or trees. Their hind legs are modified for jumping, and are covered with hairs that facilitate the spreading of a secretion over their bodies that acts as a water repellent and carrier of pheromones. They undergo a partial metamorphosis, and have various host associations, varying from very generalized to very specific. Some species have a cosmopolitan distribution, or occur throughout the temperate and tropical regions. Some are pests or vectors of plant viruses and phytoplasmas. The family is distributed all over the world, and constitutes the second-largest hemipteran family, with at least 20,000 described species.
The Auchenorrhyncha suborder of the Hemiptera contains most of the familiar members of what was called the "Homoptera" – groups such as cicadas, leafhoppers, treehoppers, planthoppers, and spittlebugs. The aphids and scale insects are the other well-known "Homoptera", and they are in the suborder Sternorrhyncha.
Cicadomorpha is an infraorder of the insect order Hemiptera which contains the cicadas, leafhoppers, treehoppers, and spittlebugs. There are approximately 35,000 described species worldwide. Distributed worldwide, all members of this group are plant-feeders, and many produce either audible sounds or substrate vibrations as a form of communication. The earliest fossils of cicadomorphs first appear during the Late Permian.
David Allan Young, Jr., was an American entomologist who specialized in the taxonomy of the Cicadellidae and authored a comprehensive treatment of the family with numerous genera and species described and named by him. This work in three parts Taxonomic Study of the Cicadellinae covered 292 genera.
Paratachardina pseudolobata, the lobate lac scale, is a polyphagous and pestiferous lac scale insect, which damages trees and woody shrubs in Cuba, Florida, the Bahamas and the Australian territory of Christmas Island. It was mistakenly identified as Paratachardina lobata (Chamberlin), an insect native to India and Sri Lanka, but was in 2007 recognized and named as a distinct species based on material from Florida; its native distribution is as yet unknown. The new lac insect was described based on all stages of the female, during the revision of the genus Paratachardina, wherein all its known species were redescribed.
Andrew Delmar Hopkins was an American entomologist of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Though self-taught, his scientific understanding of forest entomology was exceptional. He received an honorary doctorate from West Virginia University and in 1902 he went to work for the US Department of Agriculture. He was subsequently named head of the newly created Division of Forest Insect Investigations. He became a specialist in the bark beetle family Scolytidae, especially the genus Dendroctonus, species of which are the most destructive insects in coniferous forests of North America. His taxonomic monographs on these beetles are classics. He proposed the Law of Bioclimatics and he also developed the Hopkins Notes and Records System, a system he brought into the federal government when he first came to work for the Division of Entomology in the late 1890s. Hopkins’ research is one of the cornerstones of entomology on the North American continent and he is often referred to as the “father of North American forest entomology.”
George Willis Kirkaldy was an English entomologist who specialised on Hemiptera. He was a Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society from 1893.
Gordon Floyd Ferris was an American entomologist who served as professor of biology at Stanford University from 1912 to 1958 and earned a reputation for his teaching. He founded and edited the journal Microentomology, preferring to work on insects that could only be examined on microscopic slides. He was a specialist on the systematics of the Coccoidea.
Charles Henry Tyler Townsend was an American entomologist specializing in the study of tachinids (Tachinidae), a large and diverse family of flies (Diptera) with larvae that are parasitoids of other insects. He was perhaps the most prolific publisher of new tachinids, naming and describing some 3000 species and genera. He made important contributions to the biological control of insect pests and he was the first to identify the insect vector of a debilitating disease in Peru. Townsend was also a controversial figure and criticism of his approach to insect taxonomy continues to this day.
Zeyaur R. Khan is a professor and the principal scientist at International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe). He has dedicated his 30-year career as an international agricultural scientist to advancing the science and practice of agriculture by studying and applying chemical ecology, behavior, plant-plant and insect-plant interactions to improve farm productivity to combat poverty and food insecurity in Africa. He is responsible for the discovery and wide scale implementation of a pro-poor scientific innovation for enhancing food security and environmental sustainability in Africa]. This was achieved through the biologically-based IPM technology called "Push-Pull", developed for small-holder cereal-livestock African farmers. Prof. Khan’s work is an example demonstrating that creativity and innovation in science can provide practical solutions for the real problems of thousands of small-holder poor farmers and promote their food security and sustainable livelihoods.
John Merton Aldrich was an American entomologist. Aldrich was the Associate Curator of Insects at the United States National Museum. He is considered one of the most prolific entomologists in the study of flies.
Elmer Darwin Ball was an American entomologist. Ball is known for his contributions to the knowledge of the leafhoppers, treehoppers, froghoppers, and other related insects.
Edward Lawrence Todd (1922–1986) was an American research entomologist, specializing in the taxonomy and systematics of Lepidoptera (Noctuidae), and Hemiptera (Gelastocoridae).
Empoasca fabae belongs to family Cicadellidae and genus Empoasca within order Hemiptera. They are more commonly referred to as the potato leafhopper. In North America they are a serious agricultural pest. Every year millions of dollars are lost from reduced crop yields and on pest management. Crops that are impacted the most are potatoes, clover, beans, apples and alfalfa.
Ayla Kalkandelen was a Turkish entomologist. Her specialty was in Auchenorrhyncha, a suborder of true bugs or insects order Homoptera. She described ten taxa and has five taxa named after her.
Frej Ossiannilsson was a Swedish entomologist who specialized in Auchenorrhyncha, and is known also for discovering vibrational communication of insects. He is considered a pioneer of biotremology for work on behavioural and anatomical basis of vibrational communication.
Nadejda "Nadia" Waloff FRES was a Russian-born English entomologist. She worked on the biology of locusts, flight and dispersal of the Hemiptera, and taught at the Imperial College.
Maria Alma Solis is a entomologist at the Systematic Entomology Laboratory (SEL) of the Agricultural Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Chandrashekaraswami Adiveyya Viraktamath is an Indian entomologist who specializes in the systematics of leaf-hoppers, Cicadellidae. He served as a professor of entomology at the University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore.
Mary Foley Benson was an American scientific illustrator and fine artist. She specialized in detailed, realistic watercolor paintings of plants and insects.
