Spotted Lanternfly · Identification
How to identify a spotted lanternfly
The spotted lanternfly looks like four different insects over the course of a year — a mud-like egg mass in winter, a spotted black nymph in spring, a red nymph in mid-summer, and the familiar gray-and-red adult in late summer. This guide shows each stage, what its egg mass looks like and where to find it, and a month-by-month calendar of what you'll see when.
How to identify the spotted lanternfly at each life stage
You identify a spotted lanternfly by first working out which life stage you're looking at, because it transforms completely as it grows through one generation each year. There is a single overwintering egg stage and then four nymph stages (instars) before the adult, and the color changes are dramatic: the young nymphs are black with white spots, the final nymph stage turns bright red, and only the adult has wings. The cards below show each stage and its field marks; the photo slots are placeholders for now, with precise descriptions in the meantime.
Egg mass
Overwintering stage · Oct–Apr
- Size
- About 1 in (2.5 cm) long
- Field marks
-
- Fresh: a creamy gray-brown, putty- or mud-like smear
- Old: rows of brownish, seed-like eggs once the coating wears off
- Laid on bark, stone, brick, furniture, vehicles
- Roughly 30–50 eggs per mass
Early nymph (1st–3rd instar)
Spring–early summer · May–Jul
- Size
- ⅛ to ¼ in (0.3–0.6 cm)
- Field marks
-
- Black body covered in bright white spots
- Wingless; walks up trunks and jumps when disturbed
- Easily mistaken for a tick or beetle at a glance
- Found climbing stems and trunks of many plants
Late nymph (4th instar)
Mid-summer · Jul–Sep
- Size
- About ½ to ¾ in (1.3–1.9 cm)
- Field marks
-
- Bright red body with black stripes and white spots
- Still wingless; the last stage before adulthood
- The most colorful and recognizable nymph stage
- Clusters on favored hosts like tree of heaven
Adult
Lycorma delicatula · Jul–Dec
- Size
- ~1 in (2.5 cm) at rest; wingspan ~2 in (5 cm)
- Field marks
-
- Folded gray to pinkish-tan forewings with black spots
- Hindwings flash red with black spots and a white band
- Yellow-banded abdomen; weak flyer, strong jumper
- Lays egg masses on any hard surface in fall
What does a spotted lanternfly egg mass look like?
A spotted lanternfly egg mass looks like a smear of gray, drying mud about an inch long — easy to overlook and easy to move by accident, which is exactly how the insect spreads. When freshly laid in the fall, each mass is coated in a creamy, putty-like covering that dries to a cracked gray-brown, so it blends into bark and stone. As that coating wears away over winter, the mass reveals what it's hiding: tidy vertical rows of brownish, seed-like eggs, roughly 30 to 50 of them.
The reason egg masses turn up almost anywhere is that the female isn't picky about where she lays. Look for them on the trunks and branches of host trees — especially tree of heaven — but also on completely non-living surfaces: stone, brick, and concrete, fence posts and decks, outdoor furniture and grills, rusty metal, and, critically, on vehicles, trailers, and firewood. That last group is how egg masses travel hundreds of miles, so it's worth inspecting anything that's been parked or stored outdoors before you move it in fall or winter.
Seasonal calendar: what you'll see when
Because the spotted lanternfly completes just one generation a year, the stage you'll encounter is predictable by season — which also tells you which control method fits the moment. This calendar is a general guide; exact timing shifts a few weeks north to south and year to year with the weather.
| When | Stage | What you'll see |
|---|---|---|
| Oct – Apr | Egg mass | A 1-inch gray, mud-like smear on bark, stone, or man-made surfaces; older masses show rows of seed-like eggs. |
| May – Jul | Early nymphs (1st–3rd instar) | Small, wingless, black with bright white spots; ⅛ to ¼ inch; jump readily when disturbed. |
| Jul – Sep | Late nymph (4th instar) | Larger nymph turns red with black stripes and white spots; about ½ to ¾ inch. |
| Jul – Dec | Adult | About 1 inch; gray forewings with black spots at rest, red-black-white hindwings; lays egg masses in fall. |
What to do when you find a spotted lanternfly
When you find a spotted lanternfly — at any stage — the recommended action across the eastern US is to kill it, and to scrape and destroy any egg masses, rather than leave it alone. This is the reverse of the advice for the Asian Longhorned Beetle, which you should capture but never kill. For the lanternfly, stomp or swat nymphs and adults, and scrape egg masses into rubbing alcohol or hand sanitizer, or crush them thoroughly.
Whether you should also report the sighting depends on where you live. As of August 2025, per USDA APHIS, spotted lanternfly populations are present in 19 states and the District of Columbia, so your area may or may not already have an established population. If the lanternfly is already established in your area, routine sightings generally don't need reporting — just kill it. But if you're outside its known range — a new county or a state without an established population — photograph it with something for scale, collect or freeze a specimen if you can, note the exact location, and report it to your state agriculture department first. A new-area detection genuinely helps slow the spread. Our report a sighting page has the state-by-state channels.
Once you've confirmed what you're dealing with, the control and treatment guide covers what actually works at each stage, and the traps comparison helps you pick a trap for the trees they climb.
Found one outside its known range?
If you're seeing spotted lanternflies where they haven't been established, report the find before killing more — early detection of a new area matters.
Authoritative sources
The identification and biology on this page is drawn from federal and university sources. We cite them so you can verify anything here at the original.