Populations of many planthopper species contain 2 wing-forms. There are flighted, macropterous individuals with fully developed wings and flightless, brachypterous individuals with reduced meso- and vestigial metathoracic wings. The reproductive potential of brachypters is higher than that of macropters, but macropters have the unique ability to escape deteriorating vegetation and colonize new habitats. Thus, brachypters are adaptive in stable (persistent) habitats and macropters in unstable (ephemeral) ones. In low profile, essentially two-dimensional vegetation like grasslands, it is the proportion of stable to unstable habitats in a local area that ultimately dictates the wing-form composition of planthopper populations. However, as resources become three-dimensional (woodlands) the fitness of brachypters decreases because of their inability to relocate host plants if dislodged. Consequently, the planthoppers of three-dimensional vegetation should be mostly macropterous regardless of the stability of the resource.