Maiestas dorsalis (Motschulsky)
The Zigzag Leafhopper
Caution
Many of the insects depicted on these pages are outwardly similar and you should not use photographs as the sole means of identification. These pages form part of a scientific key which will assist a trained entomologist to identify the species accurately.
Maiestas dorsalis (Motschulsky 1859)
Common Name: Zigzag Leafhopper
Subfamily/Tribe: Deltocephalinae: Deltocephalini
Distribution: Qld, widely distributed in the Oriental region from India eastwards.
Economic Status: A vector of rice dwarf phytoreovirus (Takata 1895), rice gall dwarf phytoreovirus (Brunt et al. 1990) and rice orange leaf phytoplasma (Rivera et al. 1963) in Asia. Its hosts include rice, barley, wheat, sugarcane and citrus (Nielson 1968).
Notes: The dark zig zag pattern down each tegmen is characteristic of the species
