Tube Spittlebug
Smoother Tube
Cicada
Dorsal
| Tube Spittlebug Smoother Tube | | Cicada Dorsal | | ||
 | Class: | Animals (Animalia) - Jointed Legs (Arthropoda) - Insects (Insecta) | |||
| Order: | True Bugs (Hemiptera) | ||||
| Family: | Tube Spittlebug (Cercopoidea, Clastopteridae) iNaturalist Observation | ||||
| Species: | Tube Spittlebug (Machaerotinae sp) | ||||
| This Photo: | 🔍Rough, Straighter Tube🔎 | ||||
General Species Information: Found on Ellura (in the Murray Mallee, SA) and elsewhere We discovered these tiny tubes on gum buds and thought they may be some sort of tiny Paper Wasp nests. We have now found out they are spittlebug houses/shelters/hides. They are known to feed on gum trees. There does appear to be two different types - a smooth nest & a rough one. The tubes are made from excretions from the larvae contained inside. Whether this rough texture indicates a different species or not we don't know. The rough bent nest was ~13mm long, and you can see a "closed" cell inside. This is actually the posterior end of the larva. It has a protective plate on it's rear end to seal the tube. The tube contains one larva, similar to a case moth, or psyllid. | |||||
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