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A beautiful little leafhopper with, alas, no common name, Scaphytopius elegans can be found all over the southern US, from Californa to Texas, Florida, and North Carolina.

Adults are pale reddish brown with a wide cream or yellow midline stripe, striped eyes, a pale transverse stripe with black borders crossing the “nose” and going through the eyes, and transparent wings with black and brown marks near the edges. They seem to be found most often near oak trees, in particular live oak (Quercus sp., particularly Q. virginiana).

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I’m going to stay “a big yellow stripe” again, and possibly “wide yellow stripe”, “wide cream stripe”, “big stripe” and “brown and cream”, because it took me forever to identify this little guy based only on his colors. For some reason, nobody describes this leafhopper as having a big yellow stripe down its back. When I finally found the species, the page described it as “a broad midline patch” and I just about put my head through the keyboard.