The spittlebug is the nymph (juvenile) of the froghopper, an insect that can jump 100 times its body length to escape threats thanks to a catapulting mechanism. Spittlebugs, like many other hemipteran insects (e.g. aphids, scale insects, cicadas…), pierce the wall of plants with their mouthparts and drink the xylem sap. But xylem sap is not very nutritious and thus froghoppers need to drink loads of it to fulfill their dietary requirements. As a result, they can consume up to 280 times their body mass in sap every day. That would be like me eating more than 68,000 Big Macs daily! They drink all this sap and it quickly gets excreted through the extremity of their abdomen mixed with air, forming lots of sticky little bubbles. This frothy mass looks a lot like bubbly spit which is what gives these nymphs their name, plus we can all agree “wet fartbug” doesn’t sound so good. The bubble blob is called “cuckoo spit” - a name confusingly inherited from the British people who, observing those bubbles at the beginning of spring, coinciding with the arrival of the cuckoo’s migration in the UK, decided to associate both events.
Nymphs encase themselves in cuckoo spit to form a cocoon inside which they can grow unseen and protected from predators, as well as helping against desiccation. They stick out their abdomens outside the bubble layer and breathe the air outside, like snorkelling. If they sense danger, they will temporarily sink below the bubble layer and breathe the air inside the bubbles instead. Once safe they can continue developing into full grown adult froghoppers.
Fun fact, cuckoo spit apparently tastes bitter. Just trust me and don’t try this at home.
Spittlebugs are any species in the superfamily Cercopoidea, which includes over 2600 species, and they are present in much of the world. At the HKBM we have five different species of froghopper. The one pictured is 𝘊𝘰𝘴𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘢 𝘣𝘪𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘴, which can be found in Hong Kong and is very colourful! See if you can spot them on your next visit!
Text: Elvira Rey Redondo
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