Family: Membracidae
Subfamily: Smiliinae
Length: circa 5 mm
These treehoppers are often found in West Virginia on species of Sunflower and other herbaceous plants.
Entylia carinata and Entylia concisa are quite similar; in E. concisa the edges of the notch converge. At least one writer has opined the two names actually refer to the same species. In the photo below, in the hopper at far left seems to be Entylia carinata and the one in the middle Entylia concisa, though aggregating together and apparently attended by the same ant.
In their 1973 work on the Treehoppers of Missouri, Kopp and Yonke said of Entylia, "An entire array of pronotal forms and coloration can be found in a population on a single plant. Early taxonomists, obtaining specimens exhibiting this variation, described the variants as new species and their confusion was carried through the literature." Kopp and Yonke believed all the Entylia in Missouri were a single species, which they labeled as Entylia bactriana.
Researchers studying the life history of Entylia bactriana found that the maturing of eggs and nymphs was much more successful when both the mother and attending ants were present; both acted to drive off potential predators. The ants attending Entylia bactriana were, most commonly, Camponotus pennsylvanicus, Camponotus noveboracensis, Formica subsericea, and Lasius alienus (Wood, 1977).
