Spittle Bugs

We have been seeing spittle bubbling out of trees, especially in today's rain.  Might be a spittlebug.

"a fat little dark-eyed green creature about the size of a sesame seed called a froghopper nymph, so named for the adult insect's squat shape, pop eyes and leaping ability. The nymph stage is better known as a spittlebug. Froghoppers/spittlebugs insert their "beak" & suck sap through their bodies, extracting nutrients. As the liquid comes out the other end, mixed with soapy abdominal secretions, the insect puffs air into it through a special organ, blowing bubbles. The froth flows down and around the nymph (they feed facing head down), keeping it cool, moist and hidden from you (unless you look)."

NC Stream Watch - New Hope Creek

NC Stream Watch volunteers take monthly samples along an elevational transect of New Hope Creek as it flows from Duke Forest slate belt down through Triassic basic sediments and bottomlands into the northernmost lobe of Jordan Reservoir 

Samples include wetted-width cross-sections to estimate total flow.

Water chemistry including Dissolved Oxygen, Total N and Total P.

Inspection of the macroinvertebrate fauna.  At Old Chapel Hill Rd and New Hope Creek, and at Erwin Road and New Hope Creek, we observed:

Mayfly
Female copepod
Daphnia
Snow Leopard leach
Midgefly
Oligochete
Dragonfly larva
& Asiatic Clam

Invading insects of the Southeast