A notorious pest of cotton, okra, eggplant, and others has become established in the Caribbean basin. It has now been detected in several counties in Florida, from Miami-Dade County in the south to Jackson County in the north.
The two-spot cotton leafhopper was first detected in the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico in spring 2023. At the time, the only other Western Hemisphere record for this species was a single male labeled “Cuba” deposited in the U.S. National Museum. There are no other prior or subsequent reported finds in Cuba. Two-spot cotton leafhoppers feed on the lower surface of leaves, extracting the contents of the cells. This causes yellowing, reddening, then browning of leaves, with wilting and curling of the leaves. Adult two-spot cotton leafhoppers are tiny.
They superficially resemble other leafhopper species such as the potato leafhopper. They can be distinguished by a dark spot on each wing and often by two dark spots on the head.