How often have you looked in a garden or a hedgerow to see what looks like someone has been spitting. The old name for this was “cuckoo spit” but it had nothing at all to do with the cuckoo and was produced by the nymph of the froghopper insect.

There are ten species of froghoppers in the British Isles and one of the most common is the red and black adult called Philaenus Spumarius. The nymph is yellowish and produces a froth-like spit to protect it from predators. Obviously I have not tasted it but some brave Victorian naturalists did and noted that it was “most obnoxious”.

Cuckoo spit is found on many plants including docks hawthorns and grasses.

The adults vary a lot in colour and nobody seems to know why this is so.

What we do know is that this species of froghopper has nymphs which are only about ¼ inch long and they moult five times before developing into flying adults.

The nymph I looked at had black dots on the side of the body. These are the “buds” from which the wings eventually develop.

Gardeners need not worry – the froghoppers are not pests.

A BIRDLIFE BONANZA

A couple of weeks ago I went with a friend to the Bass Rock, a seabird colony just off North Berwick, not far from Edinburgh. Huge numbers of birds can be seen and photographed.

It always surprises me to be told that one species or another is facing a crisis as the population decreases alarmingly. In fact the populations of our wildlife have always fluctuated over the years.

At the moment the population of the gannet has been increasing whilst that of the puffin, below, seems to be falling. There is evidence to suggest that the puffin numbers may start to increase and that of the gannet may fall.

The puffin, the guillemot and the razorbill are all members of the Auk family. They look like small penguins and whereas penguins are confined to the southern hemisphere, Auks only occur in the northern hemisphere.

On the day of my visit I was lucky to see a rather unusual variety of the common guillemot, which has a white ring and a curved line around the eye.

PLANT OF THE WEEK: TUTSAN

This is an easily recognised flower known to scientists as Hypericum, is a member of the St John’s Wort family and was also known at one time as park leaves because it has been deliberately planted in parks.

It is found mainly on the western side of Britain and likes woods and shady lanes. It flowers from late June but is seen at its best in late August and is in bloom well in autumn. It can grow to three feet in height and the flowers are yellow.

The old French name for the plant is toute-saine, which means all-heal. In the old days, before we had patent medicines and chemists on our doorsteps, the leaves were collected, crushed and used to heal wounds.

In some cases the leaves were boiled and the liquid, strained-off, was used in the treatment of nervous disorders.