jmenu - transparency for child menu elements - css

Question

I am using jmenu.js and setting child menu elements to have transparency. Problem is that the child elements with transparency show the parent's (i.e. main menu bar) background. What I want is have transparency on the child menus which show through to the page background. The CSS is:
.jMenu {
display: table;
margin: 0 0 0 50px;
padding: 0;
}
/* First level */
.jMenu li {
display: table-cell;
background: url('../images/tile_gray.png');
margin: 0;
}
.jMenu li a {
padding: 10px;
padding-right:55px;
display: block;
background-color: transparent;
color: white;
text-transform: uppercase;
margin-top:2px;
cursor: pointer;
font-size: 14px;
font-family: Myriad Pro, Lucida Sans, Segoe UI, Calibri, sans serif;
font-weight: bold;
text-shadow: 1px 1px 1px rgba(0,0,0,0.5);
}
/* Lower levels */
.jMenu li ul {
display: none;
position: absolute;
z-index:9999;
padding: 0;
margin: 0;
}
.jMenu li ul li {
background-color: #fff;
display: block;
padding: 0;
}
.jMenu li ul li.arrow {
background: url('../images/tile_pink.png');
padding: 0;
border-bottom: none;
padding-bottom: 5px;
margin-top: 10px;
}
.jMenu li ul li a {
font-size: 13px;
text-shadow: 0px 0px 0px rgba(0,0,0,0);
text-transform: none;
padding: 7px;
display: block;
border-top: 1px solid transparent;
text-decoration: none;
}
.tran {
background: rgba(120, 120, 120, .2);
}
.jMenu li ul li a.isParent {
background: url('../images/tile_darker.png');
}
.jMenu li ul li a:hover {
background: url('../images/tile_green.png');
}
UPDATED
I changed the css to have the background transparent not on the anchor but on the li:
.jMenu li ul li {
background-color: #fff;
display: block;
background: rgba(0, 0, 0, .4);
padding: 0;
}

Answer 1

It looks like you have a background image on all .jMenu li. Even though you think you are just applying this background ('.../images/tile_gray.png') to only the first level, it is leaking down into the inner <li>'s
Try adding background-image: none; to your child li:
.jMenu li ul li {
background-color: #fff;
background-image: none;
display: block;
padding: 0;
}
This might work but it is hard to tell what exactly is going on without seeing it in action and without your HTML.