Dogwood Spittlebug

Dogwood spittlebug resting on the edge of a leaf
Scientific Name
Clastoptera proteus
Family
Clastopteridae (a family of spittlebugs), in superfamily Cercopoidea
Description

The adult dogwood spittlebug has distinctive black and yellow markings.

The nymphs (juveniles) suck the sap of dogwoods (Cornus spp.), while the adults feed on dogwoods, plus blueberries, farkleberry, deerberry, huckleberry, and other plants in the genus Vaccinium.

These hoppers are less than ¼ inch long. As with other spittlebugs and froghoppers, the adults are amazing jumpers: now you see them, now you don't.

Learn more about this and other spittlebugs and froghoppers on their group page.

Douglas Tallamy has written that "a plant that has fed nothing has not done its job." Most birds, he points out, cannot survive and raise their young on plants but require plentiful insects for food. He reminds us that there must be a wide variety of insects (and their various native food plants) in order for there to be birds and other larger animals — and a functioning ecosystem.
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Dogwood spittlebug resting on the edge of a leaf
The adult dogwood spittlebug (Clastoptera proteus) has distinctive black and yellow markings. It feeds on dogwoods, blueberries, and their relatives.
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Dogwood spittlebug resting on the edge of a leaf
Similar Species
About Land Invertebrates in Missouri
Invertebrates are animals without backbones, including earthworms, slugs, snails, and arthropods. Arthropods—invertebrates with “jointed legs” — are a group of invertebrates that includes crayfish, shrimp, millipedes, centipedes, mites, spiders, and insects. There may be as many as 10 million species of insects alive on earth today, and they probably constitute more than 90 percent all animal species.