Spotted Lanternfly, left side

Beautiful, but scary. This is the Spotted Lanternfly (Lycorma delicatula). An impressive 2 inch exotic Fulgorid type thing from China and Southeast asia, it is a bark sucker and can do tremendous damage to smooth barked woody plants. The Ag folks are concerned about things like apple, peaches, and grapes, but there are indications that other native plants may be at risk. Currently found in 6 counties in PA, efforts to eradicate it are ongoing, but it continues to spread. Any sightings of something like this should be reported to your local Ag Extension Office if you are in the U.S. One final note is that this species favorite late season host is Tree-of-Heaven. (Ailanthus altissima). Photos, in part, by Sydney Price. Specimen from USDA APHIS, would love to have additional fresh specimens particularly of the strikingly colored nymphs. Photography Information: Canon Mark II 5D, Zerene Stacker, Stackshot Sled, 65mm Canon MP-E 1-5X macro lens, Twin Macro Flash in Styrofoam Cooler, F5.0, ISO 100, Shutter Speed 200 USGSBIML Photoshopping Technique: Note that we now have added using the burn tool at 50% opacity set to shadows to clean up the halos that bleed into the black background from "hot" color sections of the picture.