328 



AKTICULATA: LNSECTA. 



and so on, till each female lias deposited her whole stock of four or 

 five hundred eggs. When the eggs hatch, the young fall to the 

 ground and immediately burrow to the roots of the tree, upon whose 

 juices they subsist. They live in this way till the time of their 

 transformation approaches, when they gradually ascend towards the 

 surface, and at length they leave the ground, and crawl up the trunks 

 of trees, where they fix their feet firmly to the bark. After some 

 effort they open a longitudinal fissure in the skin of the back, and 

 through this opening the perfect Cicada comes forth, leaving its dry 

 and empty pupa skin attached to the tree. 



FIG. 439. 



FIG. 440. 



Tree-hopper, Membracis bimaculata, 

 Fabricius. 



Other examples of the Hemiptera homoptera are seen 



in the strangely-formed little 

 Tree-hoppers or Cercopidse, 

 which are found upon grass, 

 herbs, and trees, upon the 

 sap of which they subsist, 

 imbibing such quantities that 

 it oozes out of their bodies 

 in the form of little bubbles, covering the insect of the 

 Hemiptera in a mass of froth. 



Of the very small and minute Hemiptera homoptera, 

 none, perhaps, are more remarkable than 

 the Plant-lice or Aphidse, and the Bark- 

 lice or Coccidae. The former have on 

 the hind part of their short body two 

 minute tubes or pores, from which exude 

 minute drops of a sweet fluid. And this 

 fact explains the reason why ants collect in great numbers 

 where Plant-lice abound ; for the ants feed upon this 

 honey-like fluid, and the most friendly relations exist 

 between these two kinds of insects. The ants even caress 

 the Plant-lice with their antennae, apparently soliciting 

 them to give out the sweet fluid ! 



The Aphidae multiply with astonishing rapidity, and in 



FIG. 441. 



Aphis, Aj)his mali, 

 Harris. 



