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Sticker of Buffalo treehopper
Bug card No. 0215 of 1,500

Buffalo treehopper

Stictocephala bisonia
Name means: “named after the American bison, because its side view looks a little like a buffalo”
Eats: PlantsTrue bugs and cicadasGardens and meadows6 legs

The buffalo treehopper is a small, bright green bug shaped like a triangle. From the side its shape looks a bit like a tiny buffalo. On a branch it looks just like a thorn, so it is very hard to spot.

Lives in
North America, and now also southern Europe, North Africa and western Asia, in orchards, fields and gardens
Length
6 to 8 mm (0.24 to 0.31 in)
Top speed
about 1 km/h (0.62 mph)
On foot, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless to people. It can harm young fruit trees, especially apple trees.
What does it eat?
It sucks sap from plants like clover, elm, goldenrod and willow. The young ones drink from grasses and weeds.
For real!Photo of Buffalo treehopper
Picture by Quartl. CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Buffalo treehopper about 8 mm long (0.31 in)A grain of rice about 6 mm (0.24 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)
small enough to sit on your fingernailcould run across a dinner table in 3.6 secondsmoves 35 times its own body length every second

How big is Buffalo treehopper compared to YOU?

Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.

How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

The male sings to the female, but she does not hear it through the air. She feels it as a buzz through the plant.

2

The female cuts tiny slits in branches with a blade-like tool and lays up to a dozen eggs in each one.

3

The babies hatch in late spring and climb down to the grass to feed, then go back up to the trees as grown-ups.

4

The young ones look like spiky grown-ups without wings.

you asked

Most asked questions about Buffalo treehopper

?Why is it called a buffalo treehopper?

Because from the side its shape looks a little like an American bison, also called a buffalo.

?Is the buffalo treehopper harmful?

Not to people. It can damage young fruit trees by cutting slits for its eggs and sucking sap.

?How big is a buffalo treehopper?

It is about 6 to 8 millimetres long.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Stictocephala bisonia
Named by
Kopp & Yonke, 1977
Group
True bugs and cicadas
Family
Membracidae
Classification
Insecta > Hemiptera > Membracidae
Lives on
North America, Europe, Africa, Asia
Also known as
Ceresa bisonia

Where the facts come from

  1. Buffalo treehopper (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
  2. Picture by Quartl. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.

If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at hello@bugwiki.app and we will fix it.

More from the same group: True bugs and cicadas

Also at home here: Gardens and meadows