174 HEMIPTERA-HOMOPTERA. 
Fam. CERCOPID *. 
Ranatre, Germar, Mag. Ent. iv. p. 34 (1821) (pars). 
Cercopides, Amyot et Serville, Hist. Nat. des Ins. Hémipt. p. 558 (1848). 
Cercopida, Stal, Hem. Afr. iv. p. 54 (1865). 
The generally recognized characters of this family are as follows :—-Front convex, or 
produced and compressed on either side; ocelli two, situated on the vertex and near its 
base ; pronotum large, hexagonal or trapezoidal, with a notch on its posterior margin ; 
tegmina nearly always coriaceous; scutellum small or medium-sized, triangular ; legs 
remote from the sides of the body, with the coxe, especially the posterior pair, short, 
and the tibie cylindrical, the hind pair being furnished with two (rarely one) strong 
spines on the outer side and a ring of spinules round the apex ; the two basal joints of 
the tarsi denticulate at the apex. 
The family may be roughly subdivided as follows :— 
Anterior margin of the pronotum straight; eyes as long as broad . . . . . CERCOPINE. 
Anterior margin of the pronotum rounded and produced between the eyes, 
which are nearly always more or less transverset. . . . . . . . © P9ryELina. 
Subfam. CERCOPINAL. 
Subf. Cercopida, Stal, Hem. Afr. iv. p. 55. 
The limits of this subfamily are very doubtful. The genus Cercopis, as understood 
by Fabricius, has almost a world-wide range, as pointed out by Distant (Trans. Ent. 
Soc. Lond. 1878, p. 173). In 1843 Cercopis was subdivided into six genera by Amyot 
and Serville, who restricted the genus Tomaspis to species from South and Central 
America. In 1866 Stal sunk three of Amyot and Serville’s genera, Triecphora, Monec- 
phora, and Sphenorhina, and placed them all under Tomaspis, thus extending the range 
of the latter genus to the Old as well as the New World. Distant (/. ¢. p. 178) agrees 
with Stal in suppressing T’riecphora and Monecphora, but prefers to retain Sphenorhina, 
on the ground that it seems so well-marked a genus, and one so easily recognized, that 
it is at least convenient to retain it. The sole distinction, however, of Sphenorhina, as 
given by Amyot and Serville, is that it has the front laterally compressed, ‘‘ avec une 
forte caréne en forme de coin plus ou moins aigu et dilaté” (Hémiptéres, p. 562) ; 
whereas in Monecphora it is not compressed and has only a feeble carina, and in 
Triecphora it is furnished with three raised lines or carine, which, according to Amyot 
* The Cercopide are placed after the Membracide for convenience’ sake, and not from any desire to 
indicate that this is necessarily their proper position; the classification of the Homoptera is as yet quite 
‘unsettled. . 
Tt There are one or two (probably more) intermediate forms which appear to render any division of the 
family more or less unsatisfactory, but, as a rule, the facies of the two groups is unmistakable. 
