400 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



insect has been found infesting Chrysanthemum and Aster at 

 other places in the District. 



Dr. J. A. Lintner, in his 4th and 5th Reports on the injurious 

 and other insects of the State of New York, gives an account of 

 his observations of Clastoptera obtusa Say living on the black 

 alder and also cites some other genera of "spittle" insects. I 

 have noticed the secretions of the same species on the black alder 

 very abundantly last year around Washington. 



Much attention has been paid to the spittle insects by the natu 

 ralists of former days. Swammerdam called it " Locusta pulex", 

 Linnasus placed it amongst the Cicadidse. De Geer, in his Me- 

 moires pour servir a PHistoire des Insects (Tom. 3, I74 1 )' nas 

 given a most accurate description of the manner in which the 

 young insects produce their frothy coverings. There is also a 

 very interesting statement on the- same subject in " Insecten 

 Belustigungen," by A. Joh. Rcesel v. Rosenhof, Part III, pp. 

 139-144, 1749. This author corroborates the same facts that De 

 Geer had observed, namely, that the so-called "spittle" is the 

 secretion of immature insects, issued from the terminal part of 

 the abdomen from the anus. He observed four distinct molts 

 before the imago emerged from the pupa state. As a curiosity 

 he refers to the common belief and superstition which the people 

 held about the origin of the peculiar spittle masses on plants. 

 Some believed it to be the spittle of the stars, or the evaporation 

 of the earth ; others presumed the spittle was caused by the per 

 spiration of the plant itself. The frothy accumulation often is 

 called " cuckoo-spittle," and Roesel states, as a fact that the 

 cuckoo preys on the young insects ; he had found them in the 

 stomach of the bird. 



By carefully brushing off the frothy substance from the stem of 

 the Chrysanthemum, I observed several larval insects in different 

 stages of development in one spittle, some sitting head down 

 wards, others head upwards, sucking the sap of the plant. The 

 insect thus disturbed would soon select another place and begin 

 sucking again. After a while it begins to move its abdomen vig 

 orously, raising the terminal part high and by quick motions dis 

 charges from the anal segment small globules of liquid, continuing 

 this process until it has covered itself all over with the white secre 

 tion. In the course of time the globules of the secretion diminish 

 in size and number as the air in them slowly evaporates. Then 

 the insect renews its liquid covering. Further, I observed that 

 when the pupa is ready for the last molt, it comes out of the secre 

 tion, running around on the plant animately. Remaining at last 

 in one place, but constantly moving its hind body, it begins to 

 shed the skin, emerging from the pupa state as a winged adult. 



