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Tube Spittlebugs |
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Tube Spittlebugs |
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| The machaerotids are called tube spittlebugs because the nymphs live in calcareous tubes attached to the stems of their food plants, which are usually eucalypts. The most common machaerotids in Australia are species of Pectinariophyes and Chaetophyes, which are usually greenish yellow in colour although the males of Chaetophyes compacta are mainly, or entirely, black in colour. Hacker (1922) and Evans (1940a) described the morphology and behaviour of the nymphs which often have an expanded plate on the abdomen which is used as a door to seal the tube. There are no machaerotids in New Zealand. |
Machaerota finitima Jacobi Press for species list of Australian Machaerotidae |
Document 2045, submitted 16 January 2003 © NSW Agriculture, 2003 Top of page | Related titles |
