David Owens, Extension Entomologist, owensd@udel.edu
Last week’s photo was a bit tricky, as this was no longer a photo of a live insect, but rather a shed skin. The most common sheds that you will see under leaves are from spider mites, aphids, lace bugs, and leafhoppers. Spider mite sheds are much smaller, and usually not seen unless there is a large population present with heavy webbing. Aphid sheds are about the same size, but usually there will be a large colony nearby. Leafhoppers however are highly mobile and do not aggregate in the same way that aphids and mites do. This is the shed skin from potato leafhopper on a hop plant, but also watch out for them in snap beans, alfalfa, and potato.
Potato Leafhopper