HEMIPTEliA— HOMOPTERA— (JEliOOPlDJi;. 333 



Subfamily APHROPHORIDA Stal. 



Very few fossils liave been referred to this group of Cercopidse, as com- 

 pared with the other, althougli in temperate regions at the present day the 

 Aphrophorida are in excess. Heer and others have described a number of 

 species from th.e European Tertiaries, both in the rocks and in amber, and 

 these have all been referred to the single genus Aphrophora. There are, 

 however, a number of others regarded by Heer as species of Cercopis, which 

 must certainly be referred to the Aphrophorida, if his figures are at all cor 

 rect ; such are C. fasciata and C. pallida, probably also C. oeningensis and 

 perhaps C. rectelinea. The same is true of Germar's C. melsena from amber. 

 As already stated, the species from Florissant I formerly regarded as related 

 to Ptyelus tuni out to be true Cercopida, but there nevertheless appear at 

 this same station not only an obscure form temporarily referred to Aphro- 

 phora, but two other forms of considerable interest, one of which appears to 

 be a distinct type, which I have called Palaphrodes, with several species, 

 most of them tolerably abundant; the other, a single specimen, which must 

 be referred latitudinally to the highly specialized existing Clastoptera. 



PALAPHRODES gen. nov. {TraXank, a.cppa)Srf<;). 



Stout bodied, of oval form. Head well rounded in front, nearl}- twice 

 as broad as long, reaching on either side posteriorly the more sloping por- 

 tion of the front of the anteriorly angulate and rounded thorax and there- 

 fore considerably narrower than it. Ocelli as far from each other as from 

 the e5'es. Thorax hexangular, the lateral sides the shortest, and after that 

 the central portion of the posterior border, which is slightly shorter than the 

 oblique portions, the whole thorax half as broad again as long and not cari- 

 nate. Scutellum rather small, equiangular, all the sides straight or the 

 lateral slightly concave. Tegmina broad oval, but little more than twice 

 as long as broad, the costal margin strongly arched, the apex rounded but 

 more or less acuminate, the neuration much as in Aphrophora. Wings 

 ample, well rounded, with no apical emargination, a little shorter than the 

 tegmina; the second and third and also the fourth and fifth longitudinal veins 

 united by straight transverse or oblique cross-veins at equal distances from 

 the margin, at about the end of the middle third of the wing, the third and 

 fourth by a similar vein at about the center of the wing. 



