Migration Patterns of Leafhoppers (Homoptera: Cicadellidae) in an Ohio Old Field

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Abstract
This study compared abundances of leafhoppers at three heights above ground level. Aerial suction traps and sticky traps were used. For most species, aerial abundance at 9.14 m exhibited the same pattern as the aerial abundance at 1.83 m, but neither pattern was a simple function of terrestrial abundance at 0.15 m. A common pattern was for pulses of leafhoppers to appear in the air (at both 1.83 and 9.14 m) early in the first adult generation but not at any other time. In some cases, aerial pattern was related to alary polymorphism or to reproductive maturity. Other species were rarely caught in the air, even at 1.83 m above ground level, despite high abundances on the ground. The data were used to discuss the boundary layer and wind-assisted migration, the oogenesis/flight syndrome and the relationship between migration patterns and habitat isolation and durational stability.