Born suckers: the cibarial pump of Philaenus spumarius scales across ontogeny to ensure functional equivalence.

A select group of hemipterans within the suborder Auchenorrhyncha are the only animals that feed exclusively on xylem sap - a nutritionally poor liquid that exists under negative pressure within a plant's xylem vessels. To consume it, xylem-feeding bugs have evolved enlarged cibarial pumps capable of generating enormous negative pressures. A previous study examining the allometry of this feeding model suggested that small xylem feeders pay relatively higher energetic costs while feeding, favouring the evolution of larger-bodied species. However, this interspecific analysis only considered adult xylem-feeding insects and neglected the considerable intraspecific change in size that occurs across the insect's development. Here, we examine the changes in cibarial pump morphology and function that occur during the development of Philaenus spumarius, the common meadow spittlebug. We show that the cibarial pump scales largely as expected from isometry and that the maximum negative pressure is mass-independent, indicating that size has no effect on the xylem-feeding capacity of juvenile spittlebugs. We conclude that a 1st instar nymph with a body mass 2% of the adult can still feed at the >1 MPa tension present in a plant's xylem vessels without a substantial energetic disadvantage.