Tabebuia leafhopper, Rabela tabebuiae (Dozier)

Tagged as: Cicadellidae, Homoptera

(Homoptera: Cicadellidae)

Issue No. 228
Frank W. Mead
July, 1981

Tabebuia leafhopper, Rabela tabebuiae (Dozier)

Introduction

The tabebuia leafhopper, Rabela tabebuiae (Dozier), is an antillean species that has become established in southern Florida. It is a leaf-feeding pest of trumpet trees, Tabebuia spp., African tulip tree, Spathodea campanulata Beauvois, and several other kinds of bignoniaceous plants popular as ornamentals. The first continental U. S. record, as determined by D. A. Young, Jr., was from specimens collected on an African tulip tree in Miami, Florida, April 4, 1956, by C. F. Dowling, Jr. Numerous Florida collections in the intervening 25 years indicate that R. tabebuiae is a common pest on favored hosts primarily in Dade and Broward counties.

Circulars