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VI. On the Family Fulgoridæ, with a Monograph of the Genus Fulgora of 
Linneus. By Joux O. WEsrwoop, Esq., F.L.S., &c. 
Read November 21st, 1837. 
AMONGST the insect tribes, the order Homoptera must be admitted to 
contain the most extraordinarily formed creatures to be met with in this class 
of beings. In some the thorax is armed with balls and spines, crescents, 
sabres, and other mimic instruments of war: in others the same part is 
transformed into a singularly dilated globe, concealing the rest of the body, 
or swelled out into an enormous casket which would be far.too heavy to bear 
were it not quite hollow. In others again, the head is produced into an elon- 
gated and swollen rostrum of the most singular construction, varying in the 
different species, which is occasionally armed with spines or saws, and some- 
times bent over the back. Of the use of these curious modifications it is 
difficult to form any idea. We are not indeed to suppose that aught has been 
made in vain ; but when we find such an endless variety of form in the same 
organ, we must be led to conclude either that the use for which it is bestowed 
upon the creature is always modified in accordance with the modifications in 
its structure, or that the production of so many extraordinary variations in 
organs not having a material influence upon the habits of the animals must 
be considered as a manifestation of Divine power ; in which point of view the 
contemplation of such productions is not without use. 
Of these insects some of the most curious are the species of which Linnæus 
composed his genus Fulgora, but which has become so much augmented by 
the addition of new species as to have been raised to the rank of a separate 
family, named Fulgoridæ by Dr. Leach and Fulgorelle by Latreille. It is 
in the most conspicuous of these insects composing the modern restricted 
genus Fulgora, that the head exhibits those curious modifications of form 
already noticed, and to which an additional interest attaches from the cir- 
cumstance of these insects having long been regarded as possessing the power 
rong light from the anterior produced part of the head. Such 
T - 
of emitting a st 
VOL. XVIII. 
