A new pest of cotton, okra, and eggplant crops is on the move through the southeastern United States, and it may soon be in Virginia.

The two-spot cotton leafhopper — sometimes known as cotton jassid — is a tiny 2-3 mm long green insect that can cause severe plant injury as it feeds. The insect is a significant pest for cotton, but it can also feed on a wide range of vegetables and ornamental plants, including okra, hibiscus, and snap beans.

Though it has not yet been identified in Virginia, it is present in North Carolina bordering the Virginia counties of Brunswick, Greensville, and Southampton and is expected to spread.

“We are working with cotton growers in southeast Virginia and have asked them to be very aggressive in monitoring for the pest,” said Tim Bryant, Extension specialist and assistant professor of entomology at Virginia Tech. “Homeowners can help us too by checking their okra, eggplant, and snap beans throughout the season.” 

Identification of this federally regulated pest is important because knowing where it is helps researchers like Bryant alert local growers and work with them to mitigate yield losses. Despite being smaller than a grain of rice, the bugs can cause big damage – in extreme cases reducing cotton yields by 50%. 

Tiny green insect on the back of a leaf with feeding damage that looks like brown dots.
Nymph two-spot cotton leafhopper. Photo courtesy of Isaac Esquivel, University of Florida.

Identification

The two-spot cotton leafhopper might be confused for the potato leafhopper or one of Virginia’s many native leafhoppers. The insect has three life stages – egg, nymph, and adult – and while homeowners are urged to check for the pest throughout the growing season, the adult life stage will likely be easiest to identify in late summer.

How to identify the two-spot cotton leafhopper:

  • The insect is 2-3 mm long and green with spines on its hind legs and two distinct black spots on its hind wings. These black spots are the key feature differentiating this insect from other leafhoppers.

  • Though it can affect a wide range of plants, look for it first on the underside of okra, eggplant, snap beans, and ornamental hibiscus leaves.

  • The earliest sign of damage is a characteristic “hopper burn,” which looks like yellowing around the edges of leaves. As damage progresses, leaves will turn various shades of yellow, red, and brown and often curl or pucker at the edges. 

  • Damage can appear similar to potassium deficiency or drought stress.

“The public can help us broaden our monitoring efforts,” said Bryant. “With new insect species, the public might help us find it somewhere that we would not have otherwise been looking.”

As the insect is identified in new areas, Virginia Cooperative Extension will conduct additional outreach with growers to make sure they know what to look for and how to manage this new pest.

“This could be a major pest for cotton in Virginia,” Bryant said. “The public can help us help our farmers by looking for this pest in their own gardens.”

Learn more about the pest’s biology and behavior in the Virginia Cooperative Extension pest alert. If you suspect you may have discovered the pest, please contact your local Virginia Cooperative Extension Agent

About Bryant: Tim Bryant is an assistant professor of entomology and Extension specialist located at the Tidewater AREC in Suffolk Virginia. His research focuses on understanding the ecology and biology of insect pests and using that information to develop integrated pest management programs for field crops.