[f. SPIT, expectoration; the popular belief being that the matter was spit out by the cuckoo; cf. Germ. kuckukspeichel, Du. koekoeksspog, etc.]
1. A frothy secretion exuded by certain insects, in which their larvæ lie enveloped on the leaves, axils, etc., of plants; the insect chiefly producing it in Great Britain is the Frog-hopper, Aphrophora spumaris, or cuckoo-spit insect.
1592. Greene, Upst. Courtier (1871), 7. Loyal lauender … full of Cuckoo spits.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., Froth spit, or cuckow spit … very common in the spring, and first months of the summer, on the leaves of certain plants.
1857. Livingstone, Trav., xxi. 415. While still in the pupa state it is called cuckoo-spit, from the mass of froth in which it envelopes itself.
2. Applied locally to the Lady’s Smock, etc.
1876. Jrnl. Hortic., 4 May, 355/1 (in Britten & Holl.). In the north of England the plant is known only by the name of Cuckoo-spit,… no doubt from the fact of almost every flower stem having deposited upon it a frothy patch…, in which is enveloped a pale green insect.
