134 Mr. Wesrwoop on the Family Fulgoride. 
opinion, however, originating in an account given by Madame Merian of the 
Fulgora Laternaria, appears at the present time to be regarded as fabulous, no 
other traveller of any authority or credit having since observed the least traces 
of luminosity, although the insect is by no meansrare in South America. The 
reader will find an amusing fictitious discussion upon this subject in the third 
volume of the Entomological Magazine, wherein the contrary opinion appears 
to prevail; M. Lacordaire, M. Richard, Dr. Hancock, Dr. Burmeister and 
M. Guérin, however are in favour of the non-luminosity of these insects, 
which was also personally confirmed to me by the late lamented Prince Maxi- 
milian of Neuwied *. 
In the original separation of this group of insects from the great division 
composing the Linnæan genus Cicada, Linnæus appears to have had in view 
chiefly the form of the head, his characters being “ Caput fronte producta, 
inani. Antenne infra oculos: articulis 2; exteriore globoso majore. Rostrum 
inflexum. Pedes gressorii.” (Syst. Nat. 2,703.) Nine species were described 
by Linnæus, all of which are subsequently noticed in this memoir. Fabricius 
in like manner evidently regarded the structure of the head as of primary 
importance, since, although his characters are simply * os rostro elongato; 
vagina 4-articulata, antennz breves, capitate,” we find in his detailed de- 
scription the character“ Capitis fronte porrecta, elongata, adscendente, cylin- 
drica, retusa.” And amongst the species introduced by him into the genus, we 
accordingly find species which agree with the true Fulgore in no other cha- 
racter than that of the form of the head, belonging in fact to a distinct family 
as subsequently noticed. By Fabricius also and by Latreille other genera 
were established; being chiefly separated from the Linnean Cicadæ, but 
having in the majority of their structural characters a nearer relation with 
Fulgora. The chief of these were Flata, Lystra, Derbe, Delphax, and Issus by 
Fabricius, and Peciloptera, Cixius, and Asiraca by Latreille. All these 
genera were united together into a separate family by Latreille under the 
pame of Fulgorelle, changed by Dr. Leach to Fulgoride, and from time to 
time others have been added by more recent authors, 
Laporte, Burmeister, Kirby, &c. 
* d . 
M. Wesmael has recently communicated to the Academy of Brussels, a reassertion of the lumi- 
nous powers in F. Laternaria, on the authority of a friend who had wi i ive i 
oral | witnessed an insect alive in South 
America (Ann. Soc. Ent. de France, 1837, p. Ixvii.). 
as Germar, Guérin, 
