''Philaenus spumarius'', the meadow froghopper or meadow spittlebug, is a species of insect belonging to the spittlebug family

Aphrophoridae The Aphrophoridae or spittlebugs are a family of insects belonging to the order Hemiptera. There are at least 160 genera and 990 described species in Aphrophoridae. European genera * ''Aphrophora'' Germar 1821 * ''Lepyronia'' Amyot & Serville ...

. In

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

and

America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, it is economically important as one of the

vector Vector most often refers to: *Euclidean vector, a quantity with a magnitude and a direction *Vector (epidemiology), an agent that carries and transmits an infectious pathogen into another living organism Vector may also refer to: Mathematic ...

s of Pierce's Disease (''

Xylella fastidiosa ''Xylella fastidiosa'' is an aerobic, Gram-negative bacterium, Gram-negative bacterium of the genus ''Xylella''. It is a plant pathogen, that grows in the water transport tissues of plants (Xylem, xylem vessels) and is transmitted exclusively by ...

'').

Etymology

The genus name ''Philaenus'' comes from the Greek ''philein'' ("love"), while the species name ''spumarius'' is from the Latin ''spuma'' ("sparkling"), referring to the foam nests; the binomial ''Philaenus spumarius'' can be translated as "foam lover."

Varietas

Varietas within this species include: *''Philaenus spumarius var. populellus'' *''Philaenus spumarius var. vittatus'' *''Philaenus spumarius var. lateralis'' *''Philaenus spumarius var. fasciatus'' *''Philaenus spumarius var. gibbus''

Distribution

''Philaenus spumarius'' is quite common and widespread. The species' original distribution was restricted to the

Palearctic realm The Palearctic or Palaearctic is the largest of the eight biogeographic realms of the Earth. It stretches across all of Eurasia north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa. The realm consists of several bioregions: the Euro-Sibe ...

. They are present in most of

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

, in

North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...

, in part of

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

, in

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

, and in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. They have also been introduced in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

. This is a very eurytopic species, meaning that it can tolerate a wide range of environmental factors and exist in many different habitats (parks, meadows, gardens, etc.). It lives in almost all open land habitats and in open forests. It is absent only in very wet and very dry habitats.

Identification

The species reaches a body length of . Most females are slightly larger than males. In these polymorphic insects, the coloration of the body is very variable (about 20 different colors are known).Selcuk Yurtseve
On the Polymorphic Meadow Spittlebug, Philaenus spumarius (L.) (Homoptera: Cercopidae)
/ref> Usually, they are yellowish, brownish, or black, with brighter patches on a dark background, but also with dark markings on a lighter background.

Locomotion

The most common modes of locomotion are running and flying, but the most striking is their strong jumping ability, which is useful for escaping from predators.Jonathan Amo
Garden insect is jump champion
/ref> When jumping, the hind leg tarsal spines and spine hairs are embedded into the material the animal is jumping from, typically a plant, and provide the purchase needed for a lateral jump - confirmed with scanning electron micrographs. X-ray spectroscopy revealed that the darker coloured sclerotized tips of the spines, the last 6/100ths of a millimetre or so, contain zinc.Goetzke, H.H., Pattrick, J.G, and Federle, W (2019) Froghoppers jump from smooth plant surfaces by piercing them with sharp spines, PNAS, 116:(8) 3012-3017
/ref>

Life cycle

The seasonal nature, the

phenology Phenology is the study of periodic events in biological life cycles and how these are influenced by seasonality, seasonal and interannual variations in climate, as well as environmental factor, habitat factors (such as elevation). Examples includ ...

, of the species' life cycle varies because of the wide range of climatic conditions it can tolerate, but remains similar. In a

temperate climate In geography, the temperate climates of Earth occur in the middle latitudes (23.5° to 66.5° N/S of Equator), which span between the tropics and the polar regions of Earth. These zones generally have wider temperature ranges throughout t ...

, the females lay eggs at the end of the summer. The eggs are laid singly or in groups (1 to 30, average 7 ) on the food plants of the larvae. Egg-laying is triggered by a single female, which can produce up to 350–400 eggs. In unfavorable climatic periods, froghoppers can survive in the form of eggs. Eggs are approximately 1 mm long and 0.3 mm wide. They are white with an orange spot, which becomes darker and larger if the egg is fertilised. The larvae, also called nymphs, hatch after about 20 days and develop through five stages, known as

instar An instar (, from the Latin '' īnstar'', "form", "likeness") is a developmental stage of arthropods, such as insects, between each moult (''ecdysis''), until sexual maturity is reached. Arthropods must shed the exoskeleton in order to grow or ass ...

s. The larvae are well known for the self-generated foam nests which can be observed during spring in meadows (especially on cuckoo flowers, ''

Cardamine pratensis ''Cardamine pratensis'', the cuckoo flower, lady's smock, mayflower, or milkmaids, is a flowering plant in the family Brassicaceae. It is a perennial herb native throughout most of Europe and Western Asia. The specific name ''pratensis'' is Latin ...

'', and broom, ''

Genista Genista is a genus of flowering plants in the legume family Fabaceae, native to open habitats such as moorland and pasture in Europe and western Asia. They include species commonly called broom, though the term may also refer to other genera, i ...

'', species). The larvae in the foam nests are largely protected from predators and also get the necessary moisture for the appropriate development and temperature, so their mortality remains low even in bad weather. The larval stage lasts about 50 days. The adults leave the foam nest only when it is completely dried. This takes about ten days. The females mate soon after. Froghoppers are

polyphagous Feeding is the process by which organisms, typically animals, obtain food. Terminology often uses either the suffixes -vore, -vory, or -vorous from Latin ''vorare'', meaning "to devour", or -phage, -phagy, or -phagous from Greek φαγε ...

, their host plant specificity is low, so that they can feed on a variety of plants, mainly grasses (

Poaceae Poaceae () or Gramineae () is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos and the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in lawns an ...

species), reed plants (

Juncaceae Juncaceae is a family of flowering plants, commonly known as the rush family. It consists of 8 genera and about 464 known species of slow-growing, rhizomatous, herbaceous monocotyledonous plants that may superficially resemble grasses and s ...

species), herbs and sometimes trees (including the olive tree, where the species has been identified as spreading ''

'', the bacterium associated with

Olive quick decline syndrome Olive quick decline syndrome (OQDS) (in Italian: ''Complesso da Disseccamento Rapido dell'Olivo'', CDRO or CoDiRo) is a wasting disease of olive trees which causes wikt:dieback, dieback of the leaves, twigs and branches so that the trees no lon ...

). They have been identified on over 170 host plants.

Gallery

File:Philaenus spumarius 13.jpg, Mating File:Aprophoridae - Philaenus spumarius foam nest.JPG, Foam nest File:Larve Philaenus spumarius.jpg, An adult, newly emerged from its foam nest File:Philaenusspumarius1.jpg, Adult File: Aphrophoridae - Philaenus spumarius-000.JPG, A different colour form

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1550927 Aphrophoridae Insects described in 1758 Hemiptera of Europe Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus