Froghopper (spittlebug)

I’ve seen lots of froghoppers/spittlebugs (or the ‘spit’ from then); it turns out that the ‘spit’ if from the nymph stage of the insect so I had no idea what this pink and yellow bug was that I saw on the underside of a milkweed leaf. The skin it had just shed was underneath the bug…and it was about 1/3-inch long. All I thought initially was that it was a 'pretty bug.'

At first I thought it was a nymph of some kind but then I realized it had wings that just hadn’t dried enough to be fully recognizable. My son-in-law helped me identify it from the picture.

A day later I looked again and I think I found the same bug on the milkweed plant. It had moved from the underside of the leaf to the main stem was very still head down on the plant.

The old skin was still on the underside of the leaf (the yellow insect next to it is an aphid).

I wanted the insect spew tiny water droplets onto the adjacent leaf. Mature froghoppers still suck juices from plants but instead of making ‘spit’ it is tiny water droplets!