178 INSECTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



name of tree-hoppers *. Jn others the face slopes downwards 

 towards the breast, the thorax is of moderate size, and does not 

 extend much, if at all, beyond the base of the wing-covers, and 

 does not conceal the head when viewed from above. Some of 

 the insects, with this small-sized thorax, are familiarly called, in 

 English works, cuckoo-spit and frog-hoppers, and to others may- 

 be applied the name of leaf-hoppers, because they live mostly on 

 the leaves of plants. 



The thorax differs very much in shape in different kinds of tree- 

 hoppers (Membracidid^e), and the variations of this part are pro- 

 ductive of many odd forms among these insects,«and particularly 

 in foreign species. Among the species inhabiting Massachusetts 

 there are some in which the thorax forms a thin and high arched 

 crest over the body, as in Membracis camelus of Fabricius, and 

 the vau of my Catalogue. To these the name of JMcmbracis, 

 which means sharp-edged, is most applicable. In other species 

 (M. emarginata and sinuata of Fabricius, and concova of Say,) 

 the crest of the thorax is deeply notched on the top. In others 

 the whole of the thorax is not elevated longitudinally in the mid- 

 dle, but only in some part ; thus M. Jlmpelopsidis has an oblong 

 square crest on the middle of the thorax ; M. bimaculata of Fa- 

 bricius and univittata of my Catalogue have a thin horn-like pro- 

 jection, blunt, however, at the end, extending obliquely forwards 

 and upwards from the forepart of the thorax ; and M. binotata and 

 latipes of Say have a similarly situated horn, narrower however, 

 and curved, so as to give to the insects, when viewed sidewise, 

 the shape of a bird ; and, lastly, in M. bubalus of Fabricius, 

 tliceros of Say, and taurina of my Catalogue, the ridge of the 

 thorax, viewed from above, has somewhat the shape of the letter 

 T, becoming broad at the forepart, and extending outwards on 

 each side like a pair of short thick horns, which gave rise to the 

 foregoing specific names, meaning buffalo, two-horned, and kine- 

 like. 



The habits of some of the tree-hoppers are presumed to be 

 much the same as those of the musical harvest-flies, for they are 



Mr. Rennie, in the "Library of Entertaining Knowledge"', has misapplied 

 this name to the Cicadas, which do not leap. 



