the.com/spittlebug
the only insect that builds its childhood home out of its own butt foam
means A small plant-sucking insect whose nymphs surround themselves with a protective mass of frothy bubbles, also known as the froghopper in its adult form.
from A plain English compound, joining "spittle" (Old English spātl, the word for spit or saliva) with "bug" — because the foamy mass the nymph produces looks exactly like a gob of someone's spit clinging to a stem. The same froth gives the creature its other folk name, "cuckoo spit," from the old belief that the foam appeared around the time the cuckoo began to call — though it is, of course, the insect's doing, not the bird's.
- foam fort
- nymphs hide inside bubbly spit from their rear end
- jump king
- can leap 100 times its body length
- g-force
- launches at 400g, beating fleas easily
- plant juice
- survives on watery sap with no nutrients
- fake spit
- the bubbles aren't saliva, they're filtered plant fluid
meadow spittlebug — philaenus spumarius, foams on plants across europe and north america since the 1950s
xylella fastidiosa vector — philaenus spumarius transmits plant-killing bacteria in italy's puglia region, destroying olive trees