Green Rice Leafhopper (Nephotettix nigropictus)

Latin Name	Observation Date	Location
Nephotettix nigropictus	May 19, 2026	Purulia, Natore, Bangladesh

On the afternoon of May 19th, I was taking a walk in my orchard. Suddenly, I looked at a banana tree and saw a small, bright green insect. It blended in with the green color of the banana tree in such a way that it was difficult to see with the naked eye without very sharp vision. It had some beautiful black spots or patterns on its back. I took several pictures of it very carefully with my macro lens. Later, I checked its pictures on the Internet and the i-Naturalist app and found out some great information.

​Name and Identification:
According to the Internet, its official English name is Green Rice Leafhopper and the scientific name is Nephotettix nigropictus. According to the classification of scientists, this insect is a member of the Cicadellidae family and its genus or genus is Nephotettix. That is, the name and genealogy are all in one, it is a leafhopper moth.

​Home and Habitat:
The home of these insects is mainly the tropical region of our Asian continent. They can be seen in almost all countries of Southeast Asia, starting from Bangladesh, India, Nepal. Their main habitat is rice fields, grassy fields, damp places on the edge of wetlands, and various crop fields (such as millet). However, sometimes they get lost or fly in the wind and land on nearby banana trees or other fruit trees like in my garden.

​Food:
They do not bite or chew leaves like other insects. Their mouths are shaped like needles. The main food of these insects is the liquid sap inside the young leaves and stems of plants. They sit on the leaves of the plant and insert their needle-like mouths and suck the sap continuously. Their main food is mainly rice plants, grasses and millet plants.

​Reproduction:
Their reproduction process is quite interesting. The female leafhopper lays small eggs in rows by making a small hole in the middle of the leaves of grass or rice plants or in the tissue of the stem. After a few days, the eggs hatch and very small babies or 'nymphs' come out. These babies gradually grow up to become full-fledged green leafhoppers by changing their shells several times and spread their wings to fly.

​Benefits:
Although they do not directly benefit humans, they play a big role in maintaining the food chain or ecosystem of nature. These insects play a very beneficial role as the main food or prey for various garden spiders, frogs, lizards and small birds to survive every day.

​Harms:
Although they look so beautiful and peaceful, they are a terrible harmful insect or pest for the agricultural sector. They cause great damage, especially in rice fields. They not only suck the sap of the plants, but also spread deadly diseases or viruses (such as rice tungro virus) from one plant to another. This results in great damage to the farmers' crops.

Every small creature in nature has its own story. This little insect in my garden taught me that lesson. Do you see such insects in the fields and fields of your area? You can tell me in the comments.

I learned about them from various sites including iNaturalist, Wikipedia and Google.

(All posts are written in Bengali and translated into English using Google Translate.)
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Camera Used	Samsung SM-G973F
F-Stop	F2.4
ISO speed	ISO
Focal length	26mm
Flash	No
Editing app	MIX
Photography	Green Rice Leafhopper (Nephotettix nigropictus)
Photographer	@mshbd
Location	Purulia, Natore, Bangladesh

Link to original community
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/364408289

Latitude	Longitude	Map Link
24.3360	89.1134	https://www.openstreetmap.org/?#map=12/24.3360/89.1134