leafhopper

noun

Etymology: From leaf + hopper.

1. Any insect of the family Cicadellidae.

   “The prominent leaf defoliators, as the rose-chafer and flea-beetle, frequently destroy or vastly injure the crop over large districts, and the little leaf-hopper, though rarely preventing a partial crop, is so uniformly present and widely distributed as to probably levy a heavier tribute on the grape in this country than any other insect.”

   “1907, Altus Lacy Quaintance, Cornelius Lott Shear, Insect and Fungous Enemies of the Grape East of the Rocky Mountains, Farmers' Bulletin 284, US Department of Agriculture, page 19, Throughout the United States and Canada, wherever the grape is grown, this small leaf-hopper (Typhlocyba comes Say) will almost invariably be found in greater or less numbers infesting the lower surface of the leaf, where it feeds and breeds, increasing in numbers as the season progresses, until by late summer and fall the vines are often literally swarming with it.”