
The superfamily Cercopoidea, some members of which are called froghoppers and still others known as spittlebugs, are a group of
hemiptera
Hemiptera (; ) is an order of insects, commonly called true bugs, comprising more than 80,000 species within groups such as the cicadas, aphids, planthoppers, leafhoppers, assassin bugs, bed bugs, and shield bugs. They range in size from ...
n
insect
Insects (from Latin ') are Hexapoda, hexapod invertebrates of the class (biology), class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body (Insect morphology#Head, head, ...
s in the suborder
Auchenorrhyncha. Adults are capable of jumping many times their height and length, giving the group their common name, but many species are best known for their plant-sucking nymphs which produce foam shelters, and are referred to as "spittlebugs".
Taxonomy
Traditionally, most of this superfamily was considered a single family, the
Cercopidae, but this family has been split into three families for many years now: the
Aphrophoridae,
Cercopidae, and
Clastopteridae. The tribe
Epipygini was removed from the Aphrophoridae and elevated to family rank in 2001,
but four subsequent phylogenies all showed this lineage was firmly nested within Aphrophoridae (e.g.
[Cryan, J.R., Svenson, G.J. (2010) Family-level relationships of the spittlebugs and froghoppers (Hemiptera: Cicadomorpha: Cercopoidea). Systematic Entomology, 35: 393-415. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-3113.2009.00520.x][Hamilton, K.G.A. (2016) Neotropical spittlebugs related to Neaenini (Hemiptera, Cercopidae) and the origins of subfamily Cercopinae, Zootaxa 4169: 201-250. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4169.2.1][Crispolon, E. S. Jr., Soulier-Perkins, A., & Guilbert, E. (2023). Molecular phylogeny of Cercopidae (Hemiptera, Cercopoidea). Zoologica Scripta, 52, 494–516. https://doi.org/10.1111/zsc.12597]). More recently, in 2023, a phylogenetic analysis concluded that Cercopidae was not monophyletic, with the New World lineages representing the
sister taxon
In phylogenetics, a sister group or sister taxon, also called an adelphotaxon, comprises the closest relative(s) of another given unit in an evolutionary tree.
Definition
The expression is most easily illustrated by a cladogram:
Taxon A and ...
to all other cercopoids, and accordingly raised from subfamily to family status as
Ischnorhinidae in order to keep all of the cercopoid families monophyletic.
Spittlebug nymphs
These families are best known for the
nymphal stage, which produces a cover of foamed-up plant sap visually resembling
saliva
Saliva (commonly referred as spit or drool) is an extracellular fluid produced and secreted by salivary glands in the mouth. In humans, saliva is around 99% water, plus electrolytes, mucus, white blood cells, epithelial cells (from which ...
; the nymphs are therefore commonly known as spittlebugs and their foam as cuckoo spit, frog spit, or snake spit. This characteristic spittle production is associated with the unusual trait of xylem feeding. Whereas most insects that feed on
sap feed on the nutrient-rich fluid from the
phloem
Phloem (, ) is the living tissue in vascular plants that transports the soluble organic compounds made during photosynthesis and known as ''photosynthates'', in particular the sugar sucrose, to the rest of the plant. This transport process is ...
, Cercopidae utilize the much more dilute sap flowing upward from the roots via the
xylem
Xylem is one of the two types of transport tissue (biology), tissue in vascular plants, the other being phloem; both of these are part of the vascular bundle. The basic function of the xylem is to transport water upward from the roots to parts o ...
. The large amount of excess water that must be excreted and the evolution of special breathing tubes allow the young spittlebug nymphs to grow in the relatively protective environment of the spittle. Normally an animal should not be able to survive on a diet so low in nutrients, but the insects' digestive system contains symbiotic bacteria that provide them with the essential amino acids.
The foam serves a number of purposes. It hides the nymph from the view of predators and parasites, and it insulates against heat and cold, thus providing thermal control and also moisture control; without the foam, the insect would risk dehydration. The nymphs pierce plants and suck
sap causing very little damage; much of the filtered fluids go into the production of the foam, which has an acrid taste, deterring predators. A few species are serious
agricultural pests.
A small family in the group, the
Machaerotidae, known as the tube spittlebugs, is an outlier among the Cercopoidea because the nymphs live in
calcareous
Calcareous () is an adjective meaning "mostly or partly composed of calcium carbonate", in other words, containing lime (mineral), lime or being chalky. The term is used in a wide variety of Science, scientific disciplines.
In zoology
''Calcare ...
tubes rather than producing foam as in the other families.
File:Spittlebug nymph (unknown species), East Lyn River, Devon, UK - Diliff.jpg, Spittlebug nymph
A nymph (; ; sometimes spelled nymphe) is a minor female nature deity in ancient Greek folklore. Distinct from other Greek goddesses, nymphs are generally regarded as personifications of nature; they are typically tied to a specific place, land ...
Image:Spittlebug4383.JPG, Spittlebug nymph surrounded by foam for protection and moisture
File:Spittlebug.webm, thumbtime=193, Spittlebug nymph reforming its protective bubble covering
Adults
Adult froghoppers jump from plant to plant; some species can jump up to vertically: a more impressive performance relative to body weight than
flea
Flea, the common name for the order (biology), order Siphonaptera, includes 2,500 species of small flightless insects that live as external parasites of mammals and birds. Fleas live by hematophagy, ingesting the blood of their hosts. Adult f ...
s. The froghopper can accelerate at over as it jumps (experiencing over 400
gs of acceleration). Spittlebugs can jump 100 times their own length.
Many species of froghopper resemble
leafhopper
Leafhopper is the common name for any species from the family (biology), family Cicadellidae: based on the type genus ''Cicadella''. These minute insects, colloquially known as hoppers, are plant feeders that suck plant sap from grass, shrubs, or ...
s, but can be distinguished by the possession of only a few stout spines on the
hind tibiae, where leafhoppers have a series of small spines. Members of the family
Machaerotidae greatly resemble
treehoppers, due to a large thoracic spine, but the spine in machaerotids is an enlargement of the
scutellum, where treehoppers have the
pronotum enlarged. Members of the family
Clastopteridae have their wings modified to form false heads at the tail end, an antipredator adaptation. Many adult
Cercopidae can bleed reflexively from their
tarsi, and the hemolymph appears to be distasteful; they are often
aposematically colored.
Evolutionary history
The oldest froghoppers are known from the
Early Jurassic
The Early Jurassic Epoch (geology), Epoch (in chronostratigraphy corresponding to the Lower Jurassic series (stratigraphy), Series) is the earliest of three epochs of the Jurassic Period. The Early Jurassic starts immediately after the Triassic� ...
.
Mesozoic
The Mesozoic Era is the Era (geology), era of Earth's Geologic time scale, geological history, lasting from about , comprising the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous Period (geology), Periods. It is characterized by the dominance of archosaurian r ...
froghoppers are divided into two main families,
Procercopidae known from the Early Jurassic to early Late Cretaceous of Asia, which are thought to be ancestral to living froghoppers, and
Sinoalidae, which is known from the late Middle Jurassic and early Late Cretaceous of Asia.
The genus ''
Qibinius'' the Middle Jurassic
Yanan Formation of China mixes characters of both families and cannot be assigned to either.
The genus ''
Cercopion'' from the
Aptian
The Aptian is an age (geology), age in the geologic timescale or a stage (stratigraphy), stage in the stratigraphic column. It is a subdivision of the Early Cretaceous, Early or Lower Cretaceous epoch (geology), Epoch or series (stratigraphy), S ...
aged
Crato Formation
The Crato Formation is a geologic formation (stratigraphy), formation of Early Cretaceous (Aptian) age in northeastern Brazil's Araripe Basin. It is an important Lagerstätten, Lagerstätte (undisturbed fossil accumulation) for palaeontology, pa ...
of Brazil appears to be derived from the Procerocopidae and closely related to the
crown group
In phylogenetics, the crown group or crown assemblage is a collection of species composed of the living representatives of the collection, the most recent common ancestor of the collection, and all descendants of the most recent common ancestor ...
.
References
External links
BBC: "Garden insect is jump champion"List of all Cercopoidea species from COOL database by A Soulier-Perkins in the 2008 Catalogue of Life*
{{Taxonbar, from=Q137213
Aposematic animals
Cicadomorpha