It was one of those long breaks that I had taken for my Weekly Note since May 2019. While researching on Spigelia anthelmia yesterday, I found a 2018 publication that described some new and overlooked naturalised plant species in Singapore where my website was mentioned. Those mentioned observations were recorded in these Weekly Notes over time. Since there were indeed values doing this activity, I decided to get it going again.

This particular piece of Weekly Note was drafted back in May 2019 but was not released as I decided to go into hibernation again.

After knowing about Tube Spittlebug for a number of years and its unique way of housing its nymph in a tube instead of a mass of spittle-like substance, I had never seen a spittle tube until April 2019. The host plant was Sea Hibiscus (Talipariti tiliaceum). It all began when I discovered several of the Tube Spittlebug on this tree in a park. While happily snapping away with my camera, I started to observe mini tube-like structures by the side of some bugs. Instantly, I realized that these tubes must be the nymph-hosting structure. Needless to say, I was quite excited on this sighting and had not missed the opportunity to gather some nice pictures on these tubes. The scientific name of this Tube Spittlebug should be Machaerota notoceras.

April month had been a good season for hoppers, which were not grasshoppers but bugs classified under the sub-order Auchenorrhyncha. The most abundant species was a white hopper that could be found on the branches of different kind of trees.

Looking back, the last time that I wrote a focused post on hoppers was in December 2015.