FLATID.®. 45 
Fam, FLATIDE*, 
The Flatide are here regarded as a separate family, and as including three subfamilies, 
the Acanaloniine, Flatine, and Ricaniine; these subfamilies are by some authors 
regarded as distinct families, whereas others treat the Flatide as merely a subfamily of 
the Fulgoride. Strictly speaking, the Cixiide f would seem naturally to follow imme- 
diately after the Fulgoride, through Dictyophara ; but, on the other hand, they form a 
very natural transition to the Delphacide (Copicerus &c.), and as, for convenience’ sake, 
I prefer to leave the latter to the end of the volume, I have departed from the order 
observed by several authors, and placed the Flatide immediately after the Fulgoride, 
to which many of them bear a sort of relation through their large size and conspicuous 
coloration. The Derbide form an abnormal group, of somewhat uncertain position, 
related to the Fulgoride, Isside, Flatide, and Delphacide. The Isside might naturally 
follow the Flatide ; in fact, certain species of the former family appear to differ from 
some of the Ricaniine in little else besides the form of the scutellum and the non- 
carinate sides of the clypeus; and the transition from certain Isside to the Cixiide 
is not very abrupt. 
The Flatide, as above stated, may be divided into the following subfamilies :— 
I. Tegmina without parallel nervures along the outer border, and with the 
ordinary venation, which is usually more or less reticulate, continued to 
the margins . 2. 2. . 2 ee ee soe ee ww ew ew we eh.) 6UANACALONIINA. 
II. Tegmina furnished with more or less distinct parallel transverse nervures 
along the outer border. 
1. Clavus more or less indistinct and blunt, or confused with the corium at 
the apex; vertex not separated from the frons by a sharp and distinct 
raised transverse keel. . . . 2 1. 2 ew se ee . Fratina. 
2. Clavus always distinct and sharp at the apex; vertex separated ‘from the 
frons by a distinct transverse raised keel . . . . . . . . . © . Ricanuna. 
Subfam. ACANALONIINAL. 
This subfamily includes a considerable number of species, with the tegmina ample 
and as a rule more or less semicircular, without transverse nervures on the costal 
margin. ‘Their colour is usually a vivid green, which often fades to brownish-yellow in 
dried specimens. The original type of the genus Acanalonia (A. servillei, Spin.) has the 
* By W. W. Fowter. 
+ The composition of this family is very uncertain and will be alluded to later on. 
+ In some of the species of Flatine in which the head is not produced there is a more or less evident raised 
line between the vertex and the frons but this is easily distinguished from the sharp raised keel of the 
Ricaniine., 
