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Sticker of Passionvine hopper
Bug card No. 1026 of 1,500

Passionvine hopper

Scolypopa australis
Eats: PlantsTrue bugs and cicadasGardens and meadows6 legs

The passionvine hopper is a small brown bug with see-through wings that looks a bit like a tiny moth. Its babies have no wings, but they have a fluffy tail that sticks up like a little powder puff. People call them fluffy bums.

Lives in
Australia and New Zealand, in gardens and young forests
Length
5 to 6 mm (0.2 to 0.24 in)
Top speed
about 0.87 km/h (0.54 mph)
On foot, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless to people. It cannot bite or sting.
What does it eat?
It sucks sap from many plants, like passion vines, kiwifruit and lantana. It drips out sweet honeydew that bees like to collect.
For real!Photo of Passionvine hopper
Picture by Richard001. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Passionvine hopper about 6 mm long (0.24 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 4.1 secondsmoves 40 times its own body length every second

How big is Passionvine hopper compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

It walks on tiptoes, like a little ballerina.

2

If you disturb it, it jumps off its plant with a snap.

3

Even though it is called a passionvine hopper, it lives on lots of different plants.

4

It came to New Zealand from Australia and was first seen there in 1878.

you asked

Most asked questions about Passionvine hopper

?What is a fluffy bum bug?

It is the baby of the passionvine hopper, which has a fluffy tail sticking up.

?Is the passionvine hopper harmful?

It cannot hurt you, but it sucks sap from garden plants and can be a garden pest.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Scolypopa australis
Group
True bugs and cicadas
Family
Ricaniidae
Classification
Insecta > Hemiptera > Ricaniidae
Lives on
Australia and Oceania
Also known as
Fluffy bum

Where the facts come from

  1. Scolypopa australis (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 Richard001. Public domain, 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