# Source of foam on meadow plants? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 6, 2013, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/source-of-foam-on-meadow-plants/660253 "2013-06-06T00:37:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2013, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/source-of-foam-on-meadow-plants/660253/1 "2013-06-06T00:37:25Z")
This evening my dog and I were walking through what I call a meadow near our house in NW IN. Not a high quality prairie. Just a good sized field that doesn’t get mown. Every couple of steps I noticed a small gobbet of white foam clinging to a plant - generally the central stalk. I saw it on at least a few different plants. The foam was stark white, maybe the size of my little fingertip, and about 1’ above the ground. Any thoughts as to a likely source? ---
**Author:** ![TheChileanBlob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thechileanblob/32/435_2.png) [@TheChileanBlob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheChileanBlob)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2013, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/source-of-foam-on-meadow-plants/660253/2 "2013-06-06T00:39:23Z")
> **[Froghopper](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Froghopper)** > > The froghoppers, or the superfamily Cercopoidea, are a group of hemipteran insects in the suborder Auchenorrhyncha. Adults are capable of jumping many times their height and length, giving the group their common name, but they are best known for their plant-sucking nymphs which encase themselves in foam in springtime. > 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, ... We used to call those spitbugs. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2013, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/source-of-foam-on-meadow-plants/660253/3 "2013-06-06T00:58:26Z")
Thanks for the prompt response. So, if I look through the spit, i’ll find a larva? Cool! Something to do tomorrow… ---
**Author:** ![slowlearner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@slowlearner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slowlearner)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2013, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/source-of-foam-on-meadow-plants/660253/4 "2013-06-06T01:44:22Z")
[http://uswildflowers.com/detail.php?SName=Verbesina%20virginica](http://uswildflowers.com/detail.php?SName=Verbesina%20virginica) The spittlebugs are cool, if you know of an unmowed area with some edge habitat, you ought to look for this plant in the fall the morning of the first freeze, the stem ruptures and the sap bursts out in white curls of frozen froth. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2013, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/source-of-foam-on-meadow-plants/660253/5 "2013-06-06T01:46:15Z")
It’s just a little white grub. I guess you might find it cool, if you didn’t go through a garden hand squishing them to save spraying insecticide. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2013, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/source-of-foam-on-meadow-plants/660253/6 "2013-06-06T02:10:52Z")
Yeah - familiarity breeds contempt and all. But I derive enjoyment from observing things and expanding my awareness of what is actually going on around me. Just saw my first firefly of the season. doesn’t take much to amuse me…