Phylum: Arthropoda - Class: Insecta - Order: Hemiptera - Family: Cercopidae
This pretty froghopper, a member of the true bugs order Hemiptera, is common throughout Britain except for the far north of Scotland.
Adults are brightly but rather variably coloured with red markings on a glossy black elytra (typical example above). The winged adults are 8 to 10mm long.
This visually attractive bug is widespread and common across most of mainland Europe except Scandinavia. It is also recorded in North Africa and parts of Asia.
The specimen shown here was found in the Algarve region of Portugal.
This bug is found in a wide range of habitats including woodland edges, hedgerows, meadows, agricultural fields and scrubland.
These bugs feed on plants. They go through egg, larva and winged adult stages; there is no pupal stage in their life cycle. Black-and-Red Froghoppers are reported to have a one-year life cycle.
This page includes picture content kindly contributed by Rob and Jane Petley-Jones.
Excited by rivers and streams? So are we, and we're pretty sure you would find the Winding River Mystery trilogy of action-packed thrillers gripping reading too. Dead Drift, Dead Cert, and Dead End are Pat O'Reilly's latest river-based novels, and now they are available in ebook format. Full details on our website here...
Buy each volume in ebook format for only £2.47 on Amazon... Paperbacks also available on Amazon at £6.95 each. All proceeds go towards keeping the First Nature website online.
Please Help Us: If you have found this information interesting and useful, please consider helping to keep First Nature online by making a small donation towards the web hosting and internet costs.
Any donations over and above the essential running costs will help support the conservation work of Plantlife, the Rivers Trust and charitable botanic gardens - as do author royalties and publisher proceeds from books by Pat and Sue.