Wax-tail hoppers belong to the family Fulgoridae, and are distant relatives of cicadas and treehoppers. Like their cousins they also feed on plant juices (floem mostly), extracted through their long, siringe-like mouthparts. Plant juices are rich in carbohydrates, and wax-tails convert them into ketoester waxes, which are used to produce long, feather-like plumes. Their main function appears to be mostly defensive, both against large predators, who are likely to end up with a mouthful of wax rather than a tasty insect, and against small parasitoid insects. Females also use the wax to cover their egg clutches to protect them from parasitoids and desiccation.
After the female had finished laying her eggs, I moved her, very gently as not to break off her “tail”, onto the white background of my portable field studio. Incidentally, if you ever need to photograph a white or translucent insect, place one of the lights above the insect and only slightly behind. If the light is directly behind then the white elements of its body will not show very well or disappear completely.
The Smaller Majority 
I was very pleased to find a concentration of these showy insects on the trunk of a Ceiba tree in Panama one year. I’d been hoping for a Bushmaster that day, but I dropped everything to concentrate on the hoppers. Great write-up and shots :)
Ceiba pentandra is the host plant of this species, and I wonder if the wood used in the station’s building is of that tree (but even if it is, the hatching nymphs would be out of luck as the wood is dead, and live Ceiba are far away.)
It would be interesting to know. It’s a pity the nymphs will emerge and find nought but dead wood!
If there was ever another photo blog the world needed, it is this one. Love your book, and looking forward to more great invert posts! Does the hopper have a split compound eye, or is the lower yellow spot just coloration?
The yellow spot below the eye of this hopper is her antenna. Members of the family Fulgoridae and a few related families have highly modified antennae, the second segment of which (pedicel) is enlarged and forms a large ball, covered with so called plaque organs of poorly understood sensory function.
It’s like the cockatoo of the insect world.
that is positively incredible