The brown-winged planthopper is a sap-feeding insect native to China that has only recently reached the United States, where it was first found near Atlanta, Georgia, in 2025. It looks like a small brown moth with a white spot on the front edge of each wing, and it feeds on more than 200 kinds of plants worldwide, including apple, peach, and blueberry.
Appearance
- Appearance
- Adults are brown to dark brown, about ½–⅝ in (12–15 mm) long including the wings, with broad forewings that span about 1¼ in (30 mm). Each forewing has one white spot on its front edge. are white and coated in wax, and many trail a fan-shaped tail of waxy threads; older nymphs have brown patches.
Look-alikes
The native citrus flatid planthopper is smaller (about ¼ in, 5.5–8 mm), gray to brown, with wedge-shaped wings held steeply like a roof. The brown-winged planthopper is larger, with broad dark-brown wings and one distinct white spot on the front edge.
Why they get mixed upBoth are wedge-shaped planthoppers on trees and shrubs, and both have white, waxy nymphs.
Where it lives
- Typical habitats
- orchards
- woodland edges
- landscape trees and shrubs
- Range
- Native to China. It has spread to South Korea and Japan and is established in France, Italy, Russia, and Türkiye. In the U.S. it has so far been recorded only in the Atlanta, Georgia area, and it is not yet clear whether it has settled there for good. It is easily confused with a close relative, Pochazia chinensis, so identifications are being double-checked.
- Preferred conditions
- It lives on woody plants such as fruit trees, forest trees, and ornamental shrubs; shrubs, vines, and some nonwoody plants can also host it.
Behavior
- Diet
- Both nymphs and adults suck sap from leaves, young shoots, and fruit. In a test garden in South Korea, adults swarmed black walnut, tulip poplar, red oak, and pecan.
- Overwintering
- It spends the winter as eggs inside twigs.
Life cycle
- Nest
- Females cut into young twigs and lay eggs deep in the wood in a herringbone pattern, then cover the slits with white, fuzzy wax.
Conservation
- IUCN Red List
- NENot EvaluatedNot yet assessed
- Status
- Newly found in Georgia and under watch by state and federal agencies. In Georgia, suspected sightings can be reported with photos to the Georgia Department of Agriculture (pestid@agr.georgia.gov) or a local UGA Extension office.
- Threats
- Egg-laying wounds can kill young shoots, and the sticky it excretes grows black on leaves and fruit. It is a serious fruit-tree pest in South Korea.
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