About the size of a pinhead. Hundreds hopping in front of us when we walk through the grass. Ideas? Thoughts? Comments? Ews?

My initial guess was leafhopper nymph, they can be abundant on grasses sometimes. But I'm not sure about the thingy sticking up in front and the angle of its head. Is it an antennae sticking up on the left, or did the critter get a bit distorted during its photo op/capture?

I got some other pictures. They are newly hatched grasshoppers. Hundreds of them. Booooooo!

The shape of the head suggests a nymph in the Order Orthoptera, the short antennae would point possibly to a type of grasshopper. I think it's a 1st instar nymph where the hind legs aren't showing much development, but the hind femur can't be seen well enough.

https://www.google.co.uk/searc...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

I could be wrong! Leafhopper nymphs don't usually have an elongated head.

https://www.google.co.uk/searc...



A photo showing different stages from an egg, the hind leg on the first stage after hatching doesn't look to be noticeably thickened.

http://www3.telus.net/conrad/i...

I'd wondered about grasshopper nymphs too but couldn't find a clear picture of one that small and on one or two of the youngest that I found the insect looked to have a harder exoskeleton than Zencat's, which confused me . The angle of the head bothered me for leafhopper though, although I did find some leafhopper nymphs that had a part (beak?) pointing down, but it certainly looks more like a grasshopper's head.

On Zencat's picture the two projections on the head look different thicknesses or is it just that one is pointing away? A leafhopper shouldn't have an obviously thickened antenna like that - that and the angle of the head made me wonder if it had been slightly damaged. It not it certainly does look more like a grasshopper. On the other hand leafhoppers can occur in huge numbers in grass also and would be quite teeny tiny....... In any question like this I would defer to Janet

I got my first sample by putting a strip of packing down and chasing them onto it. That one was the only one that stuck. I'm on my phone so let me get you the next pic on the laptop. BRB

Okay, I chased few into a container, put an alcohol soaked cotton ball in with them. This is what I got. Grasshoppers, yes?

Top left, fish, bottom left leafhopper, right grasshopper Actually I'm leaning back towards leafhopper nymphs, but interested to know what Janet thinks.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/...
http://www.whatsthatbug.com/20...

We thought 'fish,' too! Lol I opened this back up to see if we can get a proper ID. These are 1/2 the size of white rice grains.

No. The top left one doesn't have a downward protruding head, nor does it appear to have antennae. It looks like a plant hopper nymph.

The one on the bottom right doesn't appear to have antennae either, the head looks like it could have a proboscis which some sucking bugs have, it folds underneath the body but that can't be seen. It looks to have wings the length of the body. They probably have small, fine antennae but the camera hasn't picked them up.

The bottom left one does have antennae, and it has short wings. Wing length can vary according to maturity but the length wouldn't usually reach the tail end if it's a very small nymph of a grasshopper, so the right one I doubt is a grasshopper.

Plant hoppers such as Cicadellidae do have very fine antennae. They all look different or at different stages, and may be different to the first one posted! The original one doesn't look to have a proboscis.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/...

http://bugguide.net/node/view/...

Grow them up and then ask again. My final thoughts are, the last three are plant hoppers, the original one may be too but it's very difficult to say without seeing more angles and I guess that one is no longer able to pose for you.

They turned out to be plant hoppers.