LAWSON: KANSAS CICADELLID^E. 37 



Here the tribe Typhlocybini has been removed from the 

 Jdssinse and given subfamily rank, the phylogenetic arrange- 

 ment, however, agreeing with that of Van Duzee, whose ar- 

 rangement seems to be quite generally accepted. 



A question that yet may have to be decided differently is 

 that of the position of the tribe Typhlocybini or the subfamily 

 Typhlocybinse. In many ways they appear to be the highest 

 members of the family. This is especially true of their wings 

 which show very evidently a specialized condition as com- 

 pared with the wings of the members of the other subfami- 

 lies. The loss of the ocelli in some of the genera may also 

 be taken to indicate specialization. 



Gillette, however, in his monograph of the American mem- 

 bers of the subfamily, calls them the lowest of the leaf hop- 

 pers, and there are others who at least partially share this 

 view. In this connection the work on the parasites of these 

 forms is rather interesting. 



Fenton finds that the members of the tribe Typhlocybini are 

 parasitized only by members of the genus Aphelopus and curi- 

 ously enough Kornhauser finds that our only known Mem- 

 bracid parasite is a member of the same genus. 



While we would not argue that this was any proof that the 

 Typhlocybini are the closest leaf hoppers to the Membracids, 

 and therefore the lowest of the Cicadellidse, yet, if Kellogg can 

 trace the relationships of seemingly unrelated birds through 

 the agency of their parasites, may it not be possible to do some- 

 thing of the same kind here. If closely related Mallophaga 

 are found only on closely related birds, may we not expect 

 to find closely related parasites parasitizing closely related 

 Homoptera? In fact do we not find this in the case of all in- 

 sects? For certainly it would be easier for a parasite to 

 adapt itself to parasitizing a closely related form than one 

 distantly related. So that it may be that in a few years we 

 may find the Typhlocybini to be not the highest, but among 

 the lower, if not the very lowest of all the groups of this family. 



