Jun:e, 1901] Ball — Aphrophora Larvae 123 



This process of froth making in the Cercopidae was discovered 

 and first correctly described by Professor E. S. Morse, of Salem, 

 Mass., and published many years ago in his Elementary Zoology. * 

 His observations were probably made on the larvae of A. spu- 

 marius which belongs to the genus Philaenus as now recognized. 



In the genus Aphrophora as now limited little is known of the 

 food habits of the larvae. One species [A. ^-notata) has been found 

 on various plants and shrubs. The remaining three eastern species, 

 which belong to a different group and are of some shade of brownish 

 testaceous, have been given as feeding on pines in the adult state by 

 various authors. Dr. Fitch has described the larvae of one of these 

 {A. parallela. Fig. 4, Plate 10) as forming frothy masses on the tips of 

 pine twigs, and in the Nat'l Museum Coll. are some Aphrophora 

 larvae labeled " Pa. On Pine, July 7," that undoubtedly belong to 

 this species leaving little room to doubt the correctness of Fitch's 

 determination. 



There are two species belonging to the parallela group occurring 

 in the Rocky Mountain region both found in the adult stage on pines. 

 Of one of these (A. permutata. Fig. 1, 2 and 3, Plate 10) larvae were 

 found in abundance on two different plants Chrysopsis villosa and 

 Lupinus sp. Both of these plants grow in clumps and it was always 

 down in the bases of these clumps, some of them often down below 

 the surface of the ground among the roots, that the larvae were 

 found. Often ten or fifteen would be found in a single clump their 

 united froth masses, held up by the coarse stems, reaching a diame- 

 ter of two inches or more. 



The larvae were found in these clumps from late in May until 

 the first week in July in the foot hills, and higher up in the 

 mountains they were just beginning to emerge July 20th. When 

 ready to emerge they climb up a stem during the night far enough 

 to free themselves from the froth and as soon as the sun strikes then 

 in the morning they burst their i)upal skins and an hour later they 

 are ready to fly up to the pine trees where their color admirably 

 protects them. 



Although both these plants grow very commonly over a wide 

 extent of territory the Aphrophora larvae have never been found on 

 them except where they were within a short distance of a pine tree. 

 At first sight it would seem probable that the eggs were deposited 

 in the twigs of the pines, and that the young larvae dropped to the 

 ground, and from there sought out a food plant, as is the case in some 

 Cicadas. But as numerous larvae were found in positions practically 

 inaccessible to any such means of distribution — such as on the op- 

 posite side of a sharp ledge of rocks, across a bramble thicket, or 



* For a detailed account of thii process see Prof. Morse's article "A Bubble-blowing Insect." 

 Pop. Sc. Monthly, May. 1900. 



