The Keeled Treehopper: I found this insect hanging out in our tomato plants last month. There is quite a bit of misinformation about them on the web, so I took one to my biology teacher to get some questions clarified.
At first glance I was captivated by this insects bizarre appearance, but after I moved past the superficial I noticed ants crawling all over it. They didn't seem to be eating the Hopper, but obviously were quite interested in it. The answer? Keeled Treehoppers are sucking the 'juice' out of the tomato plant's phloem. If you are a gardener you know that plants are always searching for more nitrogen, so with the natural abundance of carbon found in CO2 there is going to be a high Carbon:Nitrogen ratio in the phloem. Plants, vertebrates, protists, inverts: we aren't all that different. These insects also need a good amount of nitrogen, so to get that from a plant they have to excrete all that extra carbon they are drinking. So they excrete (or secrete, but I'm not sure) a sugar (carbon based) solution. That sugar solution is what the ants are so interested in!
Why are they so 'Mitt Romney' like? Not sure, but hopefully someone will search Mitt Romney Keeled Treehopper and find our blog.
Adult stage:
