New Leafhopper Species Discovered in New Jersey
Posted on July 6, 2015
A new species of leafhopper has been discovered in New Jersey. The species was discovered on the New Jersey Pine Barrens. It lives in the threatened pinebarren smokegrass, Muhlenbergia torreyana.
The species belongs to the the North American leafhopper genus Flexamia. It has been named Flexamia whitcombi. It was discovered by Andrew Hicks from the Museum of Natural History at the University of Colorado and his team. The whitcombi portion of the leafhopper's name honors Dr. Robert Whitcomb, the author's mentor, colleague and friend.
The insects range in size from about 3.5 mm to 4.2 mm in length with the females slightly larger. Many leafhoppers from the genus Flexamia are dependent on a specific plant. The effect of a warming climate on pinebarren smokegrass could be a future threat to the newly discovered leafhopper. A photo of the smokegrass taken by Uli Lorimer of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden is pictured below.
Hicks says in a statement, "The description of any new species may serve as a catalyst for additional research, and this will be best accomplished while the species still can be found in nature--something that can no longer be taken for granted. To delay the publication of a species description until the time of a genus revision is to deny the pace of change in the natural world in the 21st century and may consign said new species to a future status of 'known from a single collection', or, 'presumed extinct, life history unknown.'"
A research paper on the F. whitcombi species can be found here in the journal, ZooKeys.
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