cuckoo spit


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cuckoo spit

n.
A frothy mass of liquid secreted on plant stems as a protective covering by a nymph of a froghopper. Also called frog spit.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

cuckoo spit

n
(Zoology) a white frothy mass on the stems and leaves of many plants, produced by froghopper larvae (cuckoo spit insects), which feed on the plant juices. Also called: frog spit
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014
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In Scotland, I have heard it referred to as cuckoo spit.
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Putting a piece of grass between your thumbs and blowing to make it whistle, popping the seed heads of Greater Stitchwort, wrapping the stem of plantain around it's own seed head and firing it, making large leaves 'pop' on your cupped hand and looking for the little green bug in the bit of 'cuckoo spit' on various plants.
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In wind strong enough to whip the sea into a soap sud foam that coated sand like cuckoo spit, I scoured Labrador Bay for a bird that occupies my bucket list.
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of cuckoo spit trees the raped trees flashing signals through toxic acid
Sacred Trees

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