The Mighty Spittlebug

You order pizza. The deliveryman arrives, you grab the cash, and greet him at your door. You make the exchange and bring that hot delicious pizza box over to your kitchen table. Your mouth starts watering as you smell the melty cheese and the sizzling pepperoni. You open the box. You do not see pizza. Instead you see giant mass of spit-like foam. Your dinner is in the box, but it’s covered by this blob of nastiness. Would you eat it?

Gosh I hope not!

This is the clever plan of the spittlebug. Nobody wants to eat a ball of spit. “But hey,” Spittlebug defends, “Not only will nobody want to eat me, that spit will keep me moist and protect me from the elements.”

Doesn't this look appetizing?

Spittlebugs can be found on a number of different plants. They suck the juices out of the plant and produce this foam.

Inside the protective foam is the larval stage of the froghopper.

The spittlebug is just one of the innumerable ways nature finds a way to survive.


Blog post by Anna Leiss