BUGS. 229 



is contrasted with two large green spots on the red-bordered thorax, and this too with 

 the golden-yellow wing-covers edged with brown. 



About five hundred species are already known, and of these, more than eio-hty 

 forms inhabit the United States, Mexico, and the West Indies. 



This family is connected with the following one by the genera Polyneura and 

 JJemidictya, in which the veins near the tip of the wing-covers become very numer- 

 ously branched or areolated. A move in the direction of the Orthopterous genus 

 Microcentrum, or katydid, is seen in the wing-covers of the anomalous Australian 

 Oystosoma. 



The family FULGOEID^E is distinguished by the presence of the great lantern-flies, 

 and includes also a host of other species of very diverse forms and of many varieties 

 of structure. It contains forms which might have been mistaken for butterflies and 

 moths, and others which closely imitate such genera of Neuroptera, as Hemerobius, 

 Neuroma, Setodes, and others. They may be recognized by the compressed, vertical, 

 often carinated face, and by the bristle-shaped antennae being set into a button-shaped 

 base on the side of the cheeks beneath the round eyes, and below which latter a small 

 ocellus appears. The wing-covers are generally opaque, and narrower than the wings, 

 but in the subfamilies Dictyopharida, Cixiida, and Delphacida both wings and wing- 

 covers are more frequently transparent. 



The family is now divided into thirteen sub-families, Fulgorida, Eurybrachydida, 

 Dictyopharida, Cixiida, Achilida, Tropiduchida, Derbida, Lophopida, Issida, Ricaniida, 

 Acanoniida, Flatida, and Delphacida. Each of these is again subdivided into small 

 assemblages of genera, marked by some exterior feature of resemblance, such as the 

 truncated wing-covers of certain Flatas, the triangular form of the same organs in 

 jRicanias, the narrow, parallel-sided wing-covers of JVersia, and so forth. But as it 

 would take a large book to describe the numerous types which belong here, we must 

 select a very few, and refer the reader to the great systematic works of Westwood, 

 Stal, and Amyot for further information. 



The splendid Laternaria phosphorea or Brazilian Lantern-fly is the largest of the 

 group, although there are other species in Central America, Guiana, Mexico, and 

 in one or two sections of Brazil which are nearly as large as this, but narrower, and 

 somewhat differently marked. This genus was named by Linnaeus from the supposed 

 fact that the species were luminous. No recent traveller, however, who has observed 

 them in their native haunts gives countenance to their luminosity; and they are 

 reported to fly only during sunlight, and not to appear abroad during the night. 



In the alleys of the great primeval forests of the Amazonian Basin the great 

 lantern-fly passes its life amid the brilliant orchids and other gorgeous flowers, and 

 occasionally descends to the lower trunks of the trees when pursued by birds and 

 other enemies. This, like many of the butterflies and other broad-winged insects, 

 may sometimes be seen to have a piece taken out of the end of the wings. Such 

 mutilation is occasioned by the activity of the little green or brown lizards, stationed 

 half-concealed on the tips of projecting twigs, so that when the insects fly near, their 

 wings are instantly snapped by these lurking intruders. The Laternaria phosphorea 

 measures fully six inches across its outspread wings, and its great, mitre-shaped head 

 is as long, and in front nearly as thick, as its body. Its general color is a greenish 

 yellow, with four long spots on the humps, a series on the side of the head, and the 

 fine veins of the costal border of the fore-wings rose-colored. Numerous spots and 

 lines on the mitre, thorax, abdomen, and legs are either fuscous or black ; both pairs 



