Hawaii Biological Survey’s

    GOOD GUYS & BAD GUYS    

[Good Guys & Bad Guys Home | About This Site | Card List | HBS Home | Bishop Museum Home ]

  GOOD GUY   
65. Delphacid Planthopper

Scientific name: Dictyophordelphax mirabilis

Hawaiian Name: —

Classification: Phylum: Arthropoda. Class: Insecta. Order: Hemiptera. Family: Delphacidae

Origin: Endemic (at the subspecies level).

Status: Uncommon.

Distribution: Dry to mesic forests on O‘ahu.

Map: —


This remarkable looking creature has a nose as long as its body! This is a planthopper that makes its living by sucking sap from plants. The plants fed upon by this species are of the toxic Chamaecyce. Its food canal extends up into the “nose” and is thought to be used either to detoxify the sap or to possibly store it to discourage predators.

  Photo by William P. Mull ©HBS