Saturday Morning With Jack Tame

Scolypopa australis is quite a charming name for an Aussie bugger in the garden. This hopper is extremely common in the northern warmer parts of the North Island but has been known to be a problem as far south as Nelson and Marlborough. The overwintered eggs hatch in spring (October-November) as tiny little "fluffybums", a name which describes exactly what they look like: small, frog-like bug nymphs with an ornate tuft of "nylon" tail fibres, implanted in their bottom. If you look at them under the microscope, you'll suddenly see that these fluffybums have a somewhat melancholic look on their faces; the inherent sadness of an Australian, out-of-place, in a foreign country. As soon as the little nymphs hatch they will suck plant material through their tubular mouth parts. The phloem is where it's all at: sweet nutritious sap that courses through the veins of the host plant. Of course the excreta of the fluffybums is that sweet sticky honeydew, an unmistakable diagnostic symptom of so many sap-sucking insects.