It looked like someone with a bad cold had been spitting in this Casuarina but the animals concerned were healthy and living in this spit ball.
Like all true bugs this sucker is just that, a sucker. Bugs use their rostrum, a hollow tube below the head to feed. The majority feed on plant juices but a few suck the from other insects and bed bugs suck from humans given the chance! The spit bug sucks the juices out of the plant and froths up the exudate to make this hiding place. The bug above had just moulted and you can see the old skin on the right.
Here he is getting a real move on.
As an adult they have wings. Unfortunately I did not work fast enough and this is the only photo of the adult I got.
Other small leaf hoppers can also be found around here. Many are plain green. This one shows the transparent wings which give rise to the name of the order Hemiptera, half wing.
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3 comments:
Great pics. I used to see a similar species in Britain. Cuckoo Spit we called it and the local name for the insecta was froghoppers. Over there the 'spit' appears at the same time as the Cuckoo.
Great pictures!!! What camera do you use? Regards Karl Gawlik
I use a Panasonic Lumix DMC fZ18 which is a great little toy camera. I thought about a digital SLR or a tiny thing to go in my shirt pocket but went inbetween. I have been happy with it knowing the limitations of only being able to stop down to f8 and the slower reaction time of such a camera.
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