Nymphs are dark, with early instars having a dark head and thorax and a pale brown abdomen. Nymphs show the pronounced jutting head characteristic of adults; the head is longer than the first segment of the thorax (whereas in A. saratogensis, the head is shorter). Older nymphs in late instars are more of a mottled brown, but still show the pronounced head.

NOTE: For decades, what is now identified as A. cribrata was identified as A. parallela. All the old literature references for paralella are therefore synonymous with A. cribrata. In 1982, a paper was published by A. Hamilton saying that the common eastern pine spittlebugs with nymphs on the pines is properly A. cribrata (Walker) and that a different conifer spittlebug is properly identified as A. parallela (Say). The current, non-synonymous A. parallela is also found on confers, namely spruce and tamarack, and is known as the spruce spittlebug. This nymphs of A. parallela proper live somewhere in the understory, with site and host largely unknown; some nymphs have been raised from Balsam fir though. It is unclear how far south A. parallela occurs, it could potentially occur on Fraser fir in the mountains. All of the spittlebug nymphs on pines in the east though belong to A. cribrata. [pers. comm. Vinton Stanton] Therefore, all older records of A. parallela listed for North Carolina have been subsequently entered here as A. cribrata.