Published monthly by The Agassiz Association, ArcAdiA: Sound Beach, Connecticut 
Subscription, S 1 .50 a year Single copy, 15 cents 
Entered as Second-Class Matter June 12, 1909, at Sound Beach Post Office, under Act of March 3, 1897. 
\cceptance for mailing at special rate of postage provided for in Section 1103, Act of October 3, 1917 
authorized on June 27, 1918. 
Volume XI Y 
MAY, 1922 
Number 12 
The Grass Feeding Froghopper or Spittle Bug. 
By Philip Garman, New Haven, Connecticut. 
Every one is familiar with the spittle 
balls which we encounter when walk- 
ing through forest or meadow. They 
wet our feet when there is no dew, or 
they make travelling disagreeable in 
small brush when we are intent on see- 
ing an elusive red bird. Though we 
may call them “snake spit” or “cuckoo 
spit” and accompany the words by 
profanity, those who know recognize 
them as the product of one of the 
hordes of insect enemies of agriculture. 
The grass feeding froghopper or 
spittle bug of the meadows, to which 
this article refers, is a true bug with 
an odd mode of existence. It “spits” 
only in spring, not because there is 
plenty of moisture at that time but be- 
cause it is young. It hides and pro- 
tects itself in infancy with its spittle 
elaborated from the juice of the grass 
plant. So completely is this accom- 
plished that to date not a single insect 
parasite is known. Immersed in the 
spittle, the bug grows, molts and 
breathes. The air for breathing is 
drawn beneath the body, where it en- 
ters the air tubes through spiracles, and 
is forced in by a sort of pump at the 
tip of the abdomen. If it desires to 
make the spittle more opaque, it forces 
some of the air into the ball and the 
sticky mass holds each bubble firmly. 
It feeds while still within the spittle by 
inserting a sharp beak into the plant. 
There is no chance of being surprised 
in the hunt for food. 
But now observe the spittle itself, 
a viscous, slimy substance partly in- 
soluble in water, and still allowing the 
insect the necessary freedom of move- 
ment. Its insolubility affords a protec- 
tion from rains which work sucb great 
harm to their near relatives, the aphids. 
The substance is secreted from glands 
near the tip of the abdomen and is filled 
with air by means of the pump already 
mentioned. 
Four stages are passed within the 
spittle and the adult bug also develops 
there. The adult makes no spittle, being 
better able to avoid enemies, but it feeds 
much as the young by inserting the 
beak and extracting the sap of plants. 
Copyright 1922 by The Agassiz Association, ArcAdiA: Sound Beach, Conn. 
