FROG HOPPER

There seems to be less 'cuckoo spit' about this year.  I found this on some grass.

Of course it's not from a cuckoo but it appears about the same time that cuckoos arrive from Africa.

In fact it is the hiding place of a little bug, a froghopper nymph.  At first it is pale green with two black eyes but by now the nymphs are beginning to turn brown.  Here is one on my jeans, still blowing bubbles out of its rear end.

And eventually they become an adult froghopper, brown and crusty with a needle like proboscis to suck juice out of plants, as it did when a nymph.  But now it is out and about with an ability to jump like a frog if disturbed.

Photo: Andrew Smith