On this page
How to identify it
- Adults are small and brown with a saddle-shaped keel on the back. Females are almost 1/4 inch long with elaborate projections on the thorax; males are slightly smaller with less pronounced projections, so different that the sexes were once described as separate species.[1]
- Color varies a great deal, from pale individuals to dark ones with pale lines.[1]
- Nymphs are smaller, with several many-pronged spines on top, and their projections grow with each molt.[1]
- Look for a female sitting on her egg mass embedded in a leaf midrib, sometimes inside a folded leaf, and for ants attending the colony for honeydew.[1]
Look-alikes
| Look-alike | How to tell them apart |
|---|---|
| Buffalo treehopper | The keeled treehopper is brown with a saddle-shaped keel and elaborate thoracic projections, and it lives mainly on goldenrod, asters and other composites.[1] |
| Oak treehopper | Keeled treehoppers are occasionally found on oak and dogwood, but their usual hosts are composites, and the females guard egg masses set into leaf midribs.[1] |
| Sharpshooters and other Xylella vectors | In an Oklahoma survey of Pierce's disease vectors, keeled treehoppers were collected from vineyards and tested alongside sharpshooters; NC State says the species does not transmit plant diseases.[2][1] |
Where it lives
Documented by NC State in North Carolina, where it has been collected as late as December 19, and collected from Oklahoma vineyards during a Pierce's disease vector survey.[1][2]
Biology and life cycle
Hosts are mainly composites: aster, baccharis, beggartick, boneset, dahlia, fireweed, fleabane, goldenrod, horseweed, joe-pye weed, ragweed, sunflower and yacon. It has also been found on dogwood, oak, Solanum and yarrow.[1]
Adults overwinter in leaf litter and emerge in early spring, around March. Females embed eggs in the midrib of tender goldenrod leaves and many other plants; the leaf may fold at the egg mass to form a shelter in which the nymphs develop.[1]
Mothers guard their egg masses, a small show of maternal, presocial behavior. Ants often attend the treehoppers, protecting them from predators in exchange for the honeydew they excrete.[1]
In North Carolina there are at least four generations a year.[1]
Like other sap-feeding hoppers, it depends on two obligate bacterial symbionts (Sulcia and a Nasuia-lineage bacterium) that supply essential amino acids missing from its plant-sap diet; its genome study was the first for any treehopper.[3]
Damage and signs
Health risk
The sources describe only a sap-feeding plant insect; none mentions bites, stings or any effect on people or pets.[1]
Control
Prevention
No pesticide recommendation seems necessary; NC State treats the keeled treehopper as a curiosity rather than a pest.[1]
Common questions
- What is the odd brown bug with a hump on my goldenrod?
- A keeled treehopper. Its saddle-shaped keel and thoracic projections are distinctive, and the female often sits over an egg mass in the leaf midrib with ants nearby.[1]
- Why are ants crawling over it?
- The ants feed on the honeydew the treehoppers excrete and in return guard them from predators.[1]
- Does it spread disease to my plants?
- No. NC State says keeled treehoppers do not transmit plant diseases, and in an Oklahoma vineyard study that tested it alongside sharpshooters, the only insect reported to transmit Xylella fastidiosa was the versute sharpshooter.[1][2]
Sources
- NC State Extension, “Keeled Treehopper (PDIC Factsheets).” content.ces.ncsu.edu/ientylia-carinatai-the-keeled-treehopper (accessed 2026-11-10)
- Entomological Society of America (Journal of Economic Entomology), “Seasonal abundance and natural inoculativity of insect vectors of Xylella fastidiosa in Oklahoma tree nurseries and vineyards (Overall and Rebek 2015, Journal of Economic Entomology 108:2536-2545).” doi.org/10.1093/jee/tov261 (accessed 2026-11-10)
- Oxford University Press (Genome Biology and Evolution), “Comparative genomics of the dual-obligate symbionts from the treehopper Entylia carinata (Mao et al. 2017, Genome Biology and Evolution 9:1803-1815).” doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evx134 (accessed 2026-11-10)
- iNaturalist, “Entylia carinata taxon page (order and family).” www.inaturalist.org/taxa/83177 (accessed 2026-11-10)