cuckoo-spit

American  

[koo-koo-spit, kook-oo-] / ˈku kuˌspɪt, ˈkʊk u- /

noun

1. Also called frog spit.  a frothy secretion found on plants, exuded by the young of certain insects, as the froghoppers, and serving as a protective covering.

2. an insect that produces this secretion.

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cuckoo spit British  

noun

1. Also called: frog spit.  a white frothy mass on the stems and leaves of many plants, produced by froghopper larvae ( cuckoo spit insects ) which feed on the plant juices

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Etymology

Origin of cuckoo-spit

1350–1400; Middle English cokkowespitle cuckoopint; so called from the spitlike secretion found on the plant and thought to be left by the bird

Example Sentences

The young of many of these insects are green and soft-skinned, protecting themselves by the well-known frothy secretion that is called “cuckoo-spit.”

From Project Gutenberg

Cuckoo-spit.—The leaves of Willows, Meadow grasses and herbs, etc., are often seen with froth on them, in which is a green insect, Aphrophora, which sucks the juices from the tissues and excretes the frothy watery cuckoo-spit from its body.

From Project Gutenberg

I have frequently heard it called frog-spit, cuckoo-spit, toad-spit, and sheep-spit, and doubtless many other local terms of the same sort may be found.

From Project Gutenberg

CUCKOO-SPIT, a frothy secretion found upon plants, and produced by the immature nymphal stage of various plant-lice of the familiar Cercopidae and Jassidae, belonging to the homopterous division of the Hemiptera, which in the adult condition are sometimes called frog-hoppers.

From Project Gutenberg

So also does the so-called Cuckoo-spit, so common in our gardens, which has the curious26 faculty of secreting round itself a quantity of frothy fluid which serves to protect it from its enemies.

From Project Gutenberg