Natural history
Life cycle
Generally, homopterans are bisexual, with mating occurring prior to the production of eggs. However, individual life cycles vary in length and complexity. Metamorphosis is simple or gradual, with immature stages resembling adults except that the latter usually have wings. The life cycles of most homopterans are short. A typical example is the common meadow spittlebug, Philaenus leucophthalmus, which has one generation a year. Eggs are laid in late summer on stems or sheaths of host plants and hatch the following spring. Over the next 4 to 6 weeks, the larvae develop into adults and begin producing eggs that will overwinter.
Periodical cicada
The life cycle of three species of periodical cicadas is the longest known for insects, lasting 17 years. In the temperate zone enormous numbers of orange-winged adults emerge in spring, when male “singing” to attract females for mating can be extremely loud. After mating, using her strong ovipositor, the female cuts deeply into green twigs and through the harder wood of deciduous trees where she inserts 12 to 14 eggs through drilled slots into each of two chambers separated by a thin partition of wood. The female drills slots until she has deposited a total of 400 to 600 eggs. Injury to these trees can be severe, with branches usually dying beyond the point of egg insertion. Although eggs may be deposited in some 75 different kinds of trees or shrubs, the females prefer hickory, oak, apple, peach, pear, and grape.
The eggs hatch after two to six weeks, and the young drop or crawl to the ground, enter the soil using their large digging claws, and begin a subterranean life, feeding on suitable tree and shrub roots for 16 years (periodical cicada). The young feed at depths of 5 to 61 cm (2 to 24 inches), depending on soil conditions. The periodical cicadas that live in central areas of the United States have a 17-year cycle, but three southern species complete their development in 13 years. Since enormous numbers of nymphs feed on tree roots, many trees would die if the metabolic rate of the insect were not low. However, sap is taken from roots very slowly over a period of several years, and most trees survive. Although nymphs are almost full grown in eight years, they continue to feed and develop until the 13th or 17th year when mature nymphs emerge from the soil, climb any convenient tree or post, and attach themselves firmly. The dorsal line of the integument splits, and the adults emerge slowly through this opening. Adults live only a few weeks.
Broods of both the 17- and 13-year cicadas have been studied. The largest and most widespread brood of the 17-year form occurs in abundance over much of the northeastern quarter of the United States. “Harvest flies,” common black and green species, appear cyclically every two to five years, emerging in summer after having fed as immature nymphs on tree roots. Annual species that only require one year for nymphs to develop into adults also occur in many areas of the world.
Leafhopper
Many leafhoppers (e.g., Empoasca maligna, Gyponana mali) have cycles that involve passing the winter as eggs inserted in apple twigs. Other leafhoppers, however, such as Empoasca recurvata and Erythroneura, hibernate as adults during the winter. The sugarbeet leafhopper, Circulifer tenellus, winters as an adult in desert areas and produces an early spring generation on desert plants. As desert plants become unfavourable for feeding, the leafhoppers migrate to available cultivated plants where from one to four summer generations are produced. When the crop is harvested or the plants become unfavourable for feeding, the leafhoppers return to desert plants. Although definite alternation of desert and cultivated host plants occurs in this life cycle, no specific plant serves as a primary or secondary host. Plant selection by migrating leafhoppers is determined largely by the amount of rainfall and succulence of both wild and cultivated plants. While most species have one generation a year, a few have two or three. The life cycle of planthoppers and fulgorids is similar to that of leafhoppers, while the pear psylla, Psylla pyricola, hibernates as an adult and can produce four generations of nymphs.
Whiteflies
The whiteflies, common on citrus trees and in greenhouse plants, do not survive winter out of doors in the North but produce several generations a year in the South. The metamorphosis of whiteflies varies from the typical gradual form. In the first instar (interval between molts) the young are active, wingless forms and are usually called larvae. During three subsequent instars, the immature insects become sessile and scalelike and are called nymphs. During these three instars, internal wing development occurs. The molt from last larval instar to pupa occurs inside the last larval skin, which forms a puparium. At this point, whitefly metamorphosis is essentially complete.