"O, wonder! How many goodly creatures are there here!"

 

Miranda would have been as awed by this little creature as I am.  It's real.  It's a newly-discovered species of planhopper:

Many planthopper species exude waxy secretions from the abdomen, and these sometimes form long strands, such as can be seen in this photo. The long waxy strands may provide protection from predators - it could be that they fool a predator into attacking the wrong part of the insect, and the wax breaks off while the insect jumps to safety.

Photo credit Trond Larsen/Conservation International, via a gallery of 20 new species posted in Salon.