Cercopoidea(spittlebugs)and their spit: what you weren’t told as a child

HAKIZIMANA Maurice

When we were children in our African countryside, adults used to tell us that they were spittle or saliva of snakes, a sign of the presence of snakes in the area. But now that we’ve grown up, what exactly is it?

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They are called spittlebugs,froghoppers, or the superfamily Cercopoidea. They are a group of hemipteran insects in the suborder Auchenorrhyncha. Adults are capable of jumping many times their height and length, giving the group their common name, but they are best known for their plant-sucking nymphs which encase themselves in foam in springtime. This family has been split into three families for many years now: the AphrophoridaeCercopidae, and Clastopteridae. More recently, the family Epipygidae has been removed from the Aphrophoridae.

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Cercopis vulnerata

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These families are known for their larval stages, characterized by a frothy coating from plants, called in french écume printanière and resembling a spit (in France and French-speaking Belgium, it is nicknamed “cuckoo spit”; in Canada, “toad spit” or, more colloquially, “toad slime”).

This foam has several functions. It hides the larvae from predators and parasites, insulating them from heat and cold, providing thermal control and a defense against mold. Without this foam, the larva would dry out quickly.

The larvae puncture the plant and suck up the sap, causing damage, and much of the excess filtered fluid is used to produce moss, which has a pungent flavour and repels predators. A number of species are very harmful to agriculture.


“You are worthy, Jehovah our God, to receive the glory and the honor and the power, because you created all things, and because of your will they came into existence and were created.”-Revelations/Apocalypse 4: 11.

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183 thoughts on “Cercopoidea(spittlebugs)and their spit: what you weren’t told as a child

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