Lawson: Membraoid.t: of Kansas. 



41 



the genitalia of the genera Tclamona and Tclonaca are so near alike 

 that it seems certain that the latter should never have been separated 

 from the formei-. 



PHYLOGENY OF THE FAMILY. 



The membracids belong to that group of the Homoptera known 

 as the Auchenorhynchi, which differs from the rest of the members 

 of the order, the Sternorhynchi, in that in the latter the mouth parts 

 seeminglj'- arise from between the prothoracic legs, instead of from 

 the head, as in the former. 



In this group are five families, arising from three different stems, 

 of which it seems clear that the Cicadidae arise from the lowest stem 

 and the Fulgoridse from the highest. In between these two families 

 are the closely related membracids, cicadellids and cercopids. As 

 pointed out in his paper on the Cicadellidse of Kansas, the writer 

 accepts the conclusions of Funkhouser and others in making the 

 membracids the lowest of these three families and the cercopids the 

 highest. This relationship would therefore be expressed as follows: 



FULGORIDAE 



CERCOPIDAE 



CICADELLIDAE 



MEMBRACIDAE 



CICADIOAE 



In the above figure it will be noticed that the Cercopidae are rep- 

 resented as branching off earlier from the median stem than the other 

 two families. This seems evident when their life history is consid- 

 ered, for they have been isolated long enough to enable them to per- 

 fect a method of protection against parasitism. Certainly the devel- 

 opment of the production of the spittle mass which incloses the 

 nymph could not have occurred quickly, but must have taken a 

 relatively long period of time to attain its present perfection. 



LIFE HISTORY. 



Most of the members of this family occur on small trees or shrubs, 

 particularly those growing near the edges of woods or out in the 

 open. In the main they seem to avoid the shade and prefer those 



