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Sticker of Flatid leaf bug
Bug card No. 0519 of 1,500

Flatid leaf bug

Phromnia rosea
Eats: PlantsTrue bugs and cicadasRainforests and jungles6 legs

The flatid leaf bug is a little bug from Madagascar with wide pink wings that it holds up like a tent. Many of them sit together on a stem in a neat group. Together they look just like a pink flower spike.

Lives in
Madagascar, in dry tropical forests
Top speed
about 1 km/h (0.62 mph)
On foot, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It is a gentle bug that just sits and sips sap.
What does it eat?
It pokes its mouth into the bark of a climbing plant and sucks the sap.
For real!Photo of Flatid leaf bug
Picture by Charles J. Sharp. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

Its babies have no wings. Instead they are covered in fluffy white wax with a tail of waxy curls.

2

If you disturb a grown-up, it can jump away.

3

The babies make lots of sweet, sticky honeydew, and a bird called Coquerel's coua comes to eat it.

4

Pretending to be a flower may help keep it safe from hungry birds.

you asked

Most asked questions about Flatid leaf bug

?Why does the flatid leaf bug look like a flower?

Many of them sit together with their pink wings up, so the group looks like a flower spike.

?Where does the flatid leaf bug live?

In dry tropical forests in Madagascar.

?What does the flatid leaf bug eat?

It sucks sap from a climbing plant.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Phromnia rosea
Group
True bugs and cicadas
Family
Flatidae
Classification
Insecta > Hemiptera > Flatidae
Lives on
Africa
Also known as
Flower-spike bug

Where the facts come from

  1. Flatida rosea (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 Charles J. Sharp. CC BY-SA 4.0, 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: Rainforests and jungles