Cicadella is the type genus of leafhoppers in the subfamily Cicadellinae and tribe Cicadellini. Species are found mostly in Europe and Asia, but there are also records from Africa and the Americas.
Cicadella was named by Pierre André Latreille in 1817; earlier authorities had placed species (and those of similar genera) in the pre-occupied Tettigonia L., 1758: the genus of large bush crickets. There were also many orthographic variants.
Leafhopper is the common name for any species from the family Cicadellidae: based on the type genus Cicadella. These minute insects, colloquially known as hoppers, are plant feeders that suck plant sap from grass, shrubs, or trees. Their hind legs are modified for jumping, and are covered with hairs that facilitate the spreading of a secretion over their bodies that acts as a water repellent and carrier of pheromones. They undergo a partial metamorphosis, and have various host associations, varying from very generalized to very specific. Some species have a cosmopolitan distribution, or occur throughout the temperate and tropical regions. Some are pests or vectors of plant viruses and phytoplasmas. The family is distributed all over the world, and constitutes the second-largest hemipteran family, with at least 20,000 described species.
They belong to a lineage traditionally treated as infraorder Cicadomorpha in the suborder Auchenorrhyncha. This has sometimes been placed in its own suborder (Clypeorrhyncha), but more recent research retains it within Auchenorrhyncha.