244 NATURAL HISTORY OF ARTHROPODS. 



streak on the head and prothorax, as also by a slender line of the same color near the 

 costal margin of the wing-covers, the margin itself being white. 



Clastoptera is an allied genus, quite in contrast with all of the foregoing by its 

 blunt head and plump body. Its extreme forms are almost hemispherical, are all of 

 small size, and inhabit both North and South America. One of these short, round 

 forms is the C. proteus. Its most distinctly marked examples are deep black, highly 



polished, marked with two yellow bands on the vertex, and 

 one on the thorax, with two oblique stripes on the base of the 

 wing-covers, and a cross-bar near the tip. A black spot gen- 

 erally occupies the base of the pale brown membrane, and there 

 is a black dot near the tip. It measures about two-twelfths of 

 FIG. 3oo. Clastoptera an inch to the tip of wing-covers. As the specific name in- 



Dt'OtdUS 



dicates, it is really protean in the variation of its colors, 



passing through all modifications of pattern in marking, and including even the 

 extremes of color, such as plain black or nearly uniform yellow. On the eastern 

 coast of the United States it lives upon the cranberry vines, or upon blueberry 

 bushes in swampy places. It is found in the adult state from June to August, 

 and is distributed from Lower Canada to Florida and thence to Texas. A few 

 specimens have been captured in Washington Territory, and it occurs also in Min- 

 nesota and Iowa. 



Another species of more elongated form, the C. obtusa, is very common upon the 

 leaves and twigs of black alder in July, and continues all through the warm weather 

 until late in autumn. It is of a claret brown color above, marked with two pale bands 

 on the vertex, two on the prothorax, and a wavy, broader band on the wing-covers. 

 The membrane is often whitish, the waved band is extended exteriorly, and there is a 

 pale, V-shaped figure on the end of the scutellum. It is a little larger than the 

 preceding; inhabits many parts of the eastern side of the United States, and is 

 distributed southwest into Texas and Tamaulipas, Mexico. 



We now reach the wide-spread and exceedingly extensive family JASSID^E. The 

 forms here included are generally more slender than those of the preceding group, but 

 in some cases there is a close resemblance between them. These may, however, be 

 recognized in most cases by the exceedingly long hind-legs, the shanks in this case being 

 nearly or quite as long as the abdomen, curved, and armed with a series of long spines 

 exteriorly, and with shorter, close-set teeth and bristles on the lower and inner margins. 

 Their form is commonly long and slender, often spindle-shnped, with a large transverse 

 prothorax not much wider than the head. The front is generally an oblique, cross- 

 ribbed, inflated prominence, with the cheeks touching the anterior coxa?, but rarely, 

 if ever, restraining their movement. They have a rather large triangular scutellum ; 

 the wing-covers curve over the sides of the abdomen, appear as tapering towards the 

 tip, and the membrane is well distinguished from the more leathery corium. 



The species are world-wide in their distribution, many small and inconspicuous 

 ones being able to live on the scanty vegetation of the Arctic regions ; but the large 

 and richly colored forms inhabit the tropics of both hemispheres, and are especially 

 numerous in the warm parts of South America. At least two sub-families of unques- 

 tionable distinctness belong to this great group. The first of these the Jassida, are 

 generally more or less wedge-shaped, with the costal margin of the wing-covers a little 

 curved, and the vertex more or less crescent-shaped or deltoid. But the position of 

 the ocelli will usually serve to distinguish these from the members of the following 



