38 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



ON LEDRA PERDITA, A. & S. 



BY CARL F. BAKER, AUBURN, ALABAMA. 



On page 577 of their great work on the Hemiptera, Amyot and 

 Serville describe two species of Ledra. One, Z. aurita, the well-known 

 species of Europe, was characterized from specimens colledted near 

 Paris. I have specimens of it now before me. Its size, the broad 

 membranous prolongation of the head, the ear-shaped horns on the 

 thorax, together with other details of structure, separate it widely from 

 any other homopterous insect. The other species described, Z. perdita, 

 though equally unique in form, was characterized under circumstances 

 which, for such eminent scientists as Amyot and Serville, seem extra- 

 ordinary. After a three-line description, they remark : " L'exemplaire 

 unique d'apres lequel cette espece a ete figuree, ayant ete' detruit, nous la 

 de'crivons d'apres la figure." Unfortunately, the figure, number five on 

 plate II., is very poor. The species is credited to " Amerique 

 septentrionale." 



Since that time the species has never again been recognized, 

 although often noticed in hemipterological literature. Mr. Van Duzee, 

 in his "Catalogue of the Jassoidea,'' lists it as an unquestionable Lcdra, 

 and gives its habitat as Pennsylvania, on the authority of Amyot and 

 Serville. 



It is perfectly evident from the figure that the species is not a Ledra. 

 It lacks utterly the characteristic head structure of Ledra aurita. It is 

 equally evident that the figure is that of a Membracid belonging in the 

 Centrolinie, near Microcentrus caryce, Fh. Indeed, Dr. Goding tells me 

 Fitch himself noticed this resemblance. 



During several years past I have been receiving quantities of 

 material in Homoptera from many localities in Pennsylvania and 

 throughout the East. This material is the result of careful work by 

 good collectors, and contains immense series of the native Membracids 

 and Jassids. In the examination of this material I have been con- 

 stantly on the watch for Ledra perdita. Lately it has occurred to 

 me in several specimens from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Indiana, 

 collected by Messrs. Dietz, Liebeck, and VVeith. There is nothing else 

 among all the American material I have examined that is at all like this 

 species, with the single exception of Microcentrus caryce, and that lacks 

 the long ear-shaped horns on the thorax. So peculiar in form is it that 

 there is not a possibility of confusing it with anything else in our fauna. 



