I have been noticing masses of white, wet, bubbly foam attached to the stems of many herbaceous plants on my recent walks. These blobs of foam are produced by the larvae of a type of Hemipteran insect in the family Cercopidae. The adults are called froghoppers because many are wider posteriorly and are shaped somewhat like a frog, and although they can fly and walk, their most obvious form of locomotion is to make large leaps (up to 200 times the insect’s own body length) from plant to plant. Froghopper nymphs produce, and become surrounded by, a spittle-like mass, which lends them their name of “spittlebugs”. While there are numerous species within the family Cercopidae, the most common in our area, and the most likely culprit of these spittle masses, is the meadow spittlebug, Philaenus spumarius.

Females lay eggs on plants that will ultimately serve as food for larvae, although their food specificity is relatively low and they have been observed on more than 170 host plants, giving them many options. Spittlebugs have sharp mouthparts that they use to pierce the stems of plants and extract their juices for food. The self-generated foam nests produced by the nymphs and the moisture extracted from the plant largely protect the larvae from predators, and maintain adequate moisture and temperature for their development, even in poor conditions, so their mortality remains low. There are five stages, also known as instars, of spittlebug nymphs, which change from orange to yellow to the pale green before the final molt to the adult stage.

Like many common organisms in our globalized world, the meadow spittlebug is not native to Massachusetts, or even North America. It was originally found across temperate areas of Europe and Asia, but was introduced to North America and Canada and is now widespread here. Their large geographical extent is, in part, due to their tolerance of a wide range of environmental factors, the lack of specificity for host plants, and therefore their ability to thrive in many different habitats. As a result, they live in almost all open land habitats and in open forests.