So if one comes across frothy slime smeared on vegetation that looks like human spit, it could be the secretion of a sap-feeding cercopid called a froghopper.
'Cercopids are a big family of tiny hemipterans, an insect group which has wings that are part tough and hard, part membranous,' Yap explained in an article published on the UPLB website last June 7.
In the Philippines, 67 species of cercopids, belonging to 18 genera, have been found.
However, little is known about the cercopid species considered pests in South America and their effects on this crop.
Cercopid spittlebugs of the New World (Hemiptera, Auchenorrhyncha, Cercopidae).
Cercopids feed on a variety of plants: several species in the genera Aeneolamia Fennah, Deois Fennah, Isozulia Fennah, Notozulia Fennah, Prosapia Fennah and Zulia Fennah are known to cause significant damage to forage grasses and sugarcane by direct feeding (Peck et al., 2001, Carvalho and Webb, 2005).
Several authors have described chlorosis in pasture grasses caused by the toxic effects of cercopid saliva (Taliaferro et al 1967; Valerio & Nakano 1992).
Observation and collecting efforts resulted in the detection of 3 spittlebug species in the cercopid genus Ocoaxo on Pinus host trees.
ruziziensis change its status from susceptible to resistant to the cercopid.
However, the NPK fertilization effect on plant tolerance to the cercopid nymphs and adults attack also should be taken into consideration.
For example, the Revista published the first known case of an aquatic homopteran, a
cercopid found in the bracts of Heliconia (Heliconiaceae) (Thompson 1997).
Cercopid spittle bugs of the New World (Hemiptera, Auchenorrhyncha, Cercopidae).