Red Banded Leaf Hopper - Graphocephala coccinea

It's the beginning of October and as we start to prep for autumn clean up, I noticed our David Austin Rose has set a bunch of new buds and on closer inspection, I noticed these beauties.

Wow. I've seen dozens of leaf hoppers before, but this Red Banded Leaf Hopper (Graphocephala coccinea) is beautiful! I tried taking several cell phone photos, but at this size I couldn't capture their intense colour properly.

Leaf hoppers are sap sucking insects, and as they feed you'll see honeydew droplets excrete from their rear ends. If numbers were greater than the 5-6 that I saw on the rose, I would relocate them. Too many and they would suppress the sap from reaching the buds.

Completely yellow beneath, they can hop quite a distance from plant to plant anyways. I let them drink and do their thing. Incredible colour display, eh?

Nature is so beautiful.