🐾 Maybe the reason I love animals so much, is because the only time they have broken my heart is when theirs has stopped beating.

Saturday, 31 December 2022

Spittle Bugs (or Frog Hoppers)

 

Raintree Spittle Bugs (Ptyelus flavescens) on a Coral tree. 

Spittle bugs (or Frog hoppers) on a Coral Tree (Erythrina lysistemon), indigenous to South Africa. 

As I was photograohing them, the sky was blue, and I wondered why it was raining? I actually just happened to pick a spot just beneath a family of raintree spittlebugs! 

These white foam blobs are produced by the immatures, or nymphs, of spittlebugs, small insects related to aphids and other true bugs, in the order Hemiptera. Young nymphs blow bubbles with their excretions, and so they live and feed in a glorious soggy huddle. The dripping foam keeps them moist and cool and keeps predators and parasites away.

Empty skins and some adult Spittle Bugs. 




They suck the sap of a tree through a drinking straw, called a ‘rostrum’ or ‘stylus’. Plant sap is not all that  nutritious, so the bugs have to work through a lot of it to get sufficient proteins. But this Coral Tree doesn’t seem at all the worse for the wear and as I got close to some of the bugs, they would shoot of as if out of a catapult, so I presume they disperse fairly quickly when disturbed so won’t cause too much harm to the host tree.

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5 comments:

  1. Dis nou interessant Maree!! Ek leer ook altyd iets by jou. Mooi wense vir jou in hierdie nuwe jaar!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Baie dankie! Ek was vreeslik opgewonde oor hierdie ontdekking Liz! Mag jou jare vorentoe ook mooi wees!

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    2. Dankie Liz, ek sukkel om kommentaar te lewer, ek dink Google het iets teen my!

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  2. I'm surprised that there is not a bird that would quickly gobble them all up ! Happy New Year πŸ’

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Daisy, I somehow have the feeling that they might not be very tasty...? Certainly looks that way to me, them being surrounded by that slimy, wet bubble mass? He he! Happy New Year to you too!

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