well, to start, leafhoppers don't damage leaves so that they have holes or that parts are gone.

Please post a picture, with the critters if possible. Many times the damage, itself, enables us to ID the critter.

Not sure if your damage is true skeletonizing like larvae of certain moths do. Try researching cherry and skeletonizer to see if caterpillar damage is similar to yours.

Try looking at night for the pests.

Cheryl, it sounds like the Japanese beetles visited your tree when you were not noticing. The lacey brown crunchy is how they leave things, not many other bugs do that. They can hit one tree and then collectively move on to something else.

I agree go out and look at night, there could be some other critter causing the problem and most leaf feeders come out at night when the birds are not there to eat them. Also make sure to look under leaves. You may have had a few Japanese beetles on the tree that you missed since they were under a leaf.

Scott

There is another beetle that does that very well, the Rose Chafer, which I have seen on my cherries. They are usually around sandy soil, so I don't know if that applies to you.

They were indeed Rose Chafers, and rampant through a lot of the cherries and grapes around this area of northern Michigan. I can only hope they have had their so called Day in the Sun and won't be around next year. I'd really rather be Organic!

The beetles were really bad for me this year, they killed a new cherry I had planted late. Mainly June bugs but a few rose chafers as well.

I hope we get a really cold winter, the bug population needs some reducing!

Scott