Amid the bustling cornucopia of tropical life and the metallic flashes of beetles and butterflies, it sat statue still. It hadn’t been there the night before as I walked to and from my rainforest lodge.
Having only seen pictures or dreary museum specimens, it was my first live encounter with this strange, little-understood icon of the tropics, and nothing could quite prepare me for the real deal.
Fulgora laternaria has many monikers – lantern bug, lanternfly, machaca and alligator bug, to name a few. Mine was perched at head height on a tree trunk, and looking at it for the first time I was reminded of another popular and descriptive name for this insect: the peanut-headed bug. It did look for all the world like a monkey nut with wings, and one that had been generously sprinkled with icing sugar.
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Myths of the lantern bug
Throughout the tropics, many myths and legends surround the lantern bug. In Costa Rica, one story says that its ‘peanut’ is full of poison and can kill you if it bursts, the potency of the venom depending on the colour of its wings. According to another folk tale, if you’re stung, you must have sex within 24 hours or you’ll die – a myth probably invented and perpetuated by lovesick boys. The bad news for the boys is that this insect is harmless and doesn’t contain a drop of venom, let alone the sting to deliver it.
In fact, the lantern bug is a peace-loving sap-sucker, belonging to the ‘true bugs’ order (called Hemiptera) along with its more familiar cousins – cicadas, shieldbugs and planthoppers. Hidden away and somewhat overshadowed by its outlandish headwear is the tool of its trade: a stout, sharp-tipped, hollow straw of a mouthpart, which the lantern bug uses to penetrate a plant’s tissue to extract the phloem, its sweet lifeblood.
The lantern bug’s unremarkable lifestyle is matched by a fairly straightforward life-cycle. Tiny, dark replicas of the adults hatch from a spongy egg mass and progress through several nymphal stages, sucking sap all the way, until their final moult into the spectacular adult insects – just like the one sitting on the tree trunk that day.
Given its tame, pastoral existence, quietly sucking sap, the lantern bug’s mythological status is simply down to its incongruous appearance.
What's the purpose of the lantern bug's head?
But why does the lantern bug have such a fanciful, flamboyant head nut? The truth is nobody really knows.
Many of the other lantern bug species in tropical regions around the world have equally ludicrous protuberances. Some are brightly coloured and it is thought this might be a warning of unpleasant chemicals within their bodies. There is also the idea that their odd profile makes them look threatening or hard to swallow and, in some cases, acts as a form of camouflage. There’s even a theory that they knock their hollow heads against bark to communicate with others perched on the same tree. After all, some of their relatives are known to use a similar method of audio communication.
The markings on the head extension of Fulgora laternaria bear a striking resemblance to those found on a lizard’s head, which could well suggest it acts as a deterrent. Even more alarming for a would-be predator, it takes little more than a tap for the lantern bug to realise its ruse had been rumbled and for it to turn into something scarier. With a slight twitch, its wings flex to reveal startling bright eyespots on the hindwings. It’s an old standard as far as insect defence strategies go, but if it’s enough to make a naturalist start, then it’s going to be very effective against a curious rodent or insectivorous bird.
Main image: Fulgora laternaria / Credit: Notafly, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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