March, 1916] Homopterous Studies, Part I 165 



enemy to the cultivation of cereal and forage crops. Empoasca 

 mali on Apple and Typhlocyba comes on Grape may also be 

 mentioned to show the effect on plants other than grasses and 

 cereals. 



The Jassoidea and Cercopidae are not restricted to grasses, 

 but are equally formidable in their attacks on fruit trees, 

 garden crops and shade or forest trees. Although their attacks 

 are not as prominent or apparent as those of the Locusts or 

 Scale Insects in South Africa, yet by their inestimable numbers 

 they are considered to account for much of the trouble, which 

 is usually ascribed to other causes. 



Their method of attack is restricted almost entirely to the 

 sucking of the plant juices and sap, thus causing a general 

 wilting of the parts affected. The leaves and younger stems 

 are especially affected and the result is generally seen in the 

 small brown spots, indicating the punctures of the insect's 

 "beak." Where immense numbers of these minute insects 

 attack a crop, it can easily be seen that the incessant and 

 constant drainage of the sap will result in some material loss. 



As pointed out before, none of the South African leafhoppers 

 have yet proven to be of great economic importance, but the 

 general distribution and common occurence in meadows and 

 pastures of Athysanus capicola makes it a very suspicious 

 species. Added to this, the six-spotted leafhopper, Cicadula 

 6-notata is now reported from the Cape Region and when one 

 considers its work in North America and Europe, it would not 

 be unfair to expect a similar state of affairs in South Africa. 



The practice of burning the grass or veldt, is one which 

 though not very strongly recommended by the botanists, 

 nevertheless, serves to keep down the grassfeeding species of 

 Jassids. Owing to the nature of farming in South Africa, the 

 control conditions must necessarily be of a restricted variety, 

 and local more than general methods recommended. 



ECOLOGIC. 



Osborn states that "the leafhoppers constitute one element 

 in a very complex relation of plants and animals, including 

 birds, mammals, reptiles, toads, insects and spiders, etc., and 

 it is only by the recognition of this relation that we can offer 

 any adequate explanation of their proper place in nature, and 

 of their importance in the economy of cultivation. Primarily 



