Identification, Images, & Information
For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada

Species Prosapia bicincta - Two-lined Spittlebug

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Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Hemiptera (True Bugs, Cicadas, Hoppers, Aphids and Allies)
Suborder Auchenorrhyncha (Free-living Hemipterans)
Superfamily Cicadoidea
Family Cercopidae (Spittlebugs)
Genus Prosapia
Species bicincta (Two-lined Spittlebug)
Size
Adults about 8- 10 mm
Identification
Adults are black with two red to orange lines crossing the wings. Eyes are red. Nymphs are usually concealed by the foam they produce, but are supposed to resemble adults but without wings.
Food
In the immature (nymph) stage (surrounded by the "spittle" foam which protects them, and which they produce from juices they suck from the plant) they feed on centipedegrass, bermudagrass and other grasses, including occasionally corn.
Adults feed on hollies - they feed on the underside of leaves, and damage shows up as pale mottling not usually visible from above.
Remarks
Considered a pest of grasses and hollies, though damage is usually relatively minor.
Adults may exude a smelly chemical in defense if disturbed.