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Most sap-sucking insects drill into a nutrient-dense plant tissue called phloem, but spittlebugs specialize in the much more dilute sap from another tissue, xylem.

Thompson, who has been studying and documenting host plants of spittlebugs for 50 years, set out to do that along with collaborators in the United Kingdom.

Scientists think the spittlebug’s foamy dome of bubbles helps the nymph regulate its temperature and protects it from predators.

I also learn that while spittlebugs feed on many plants, they create little damage.

Spread by spittlebugs and other sap-sucking insects, the resulting disease has no treatment and it is said to have cut Italy's olive harvest to its lowest level in 25 years.