Desert Leafhoppers
Leafhoppers feed on a variety of desert plants, including shrubs, herbs, and grasses. In the desert regions of North America, they are common on sage (Artemisia spp.), rabbitbrush (Chrysothamnus spp.) and creosote bush (Larrea tridentata). Because they obtain all the water they need from plants and can remain dormant for long periods of drought, many leafhopper species thrive in desert environments. Species in one leafhopper subfamily, Adelungiinae, are found only in desert areas of northern Africa and western Asia. Many grass feeding desert leafhoppers have short wings and are unable to fly. Flightlessness, which occurs in several unrelated groups of desert leafhoppers, is thought to be an evolutionary adaptation to the patchy distribution of desert grasses. Natural selection is thought to favor flightless individuals in these leafhoppers because of the low probability of finding a new patch of suitable host plant during dispersal by flight. Flightlessness may have promoted species diversification in some genera. The Holarctic desert leafhopper genus Athysanella, most species of which are flightless, has over 150 described species.