184 INSECTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



tions of a small insect, which, for many years, was supposed to be 

 the vine-fretter of Europe. It is not however the same insect, 

 but is a leaf-hopper, and was first described by me in the year 

 1831, in the eighth volume of the "Encyclopaedia Americana*", 

 under the name of Tettigonia Vitis. In its perfect state it 

 measures one tenth of an inch in length. It is of a pale yellow or 

 straw color ; there are two little red lines on the head ; the back 

 part of the thorax, the scutel, the base of the wing-covers, and a 

 broad band across their middle, are scarlet ; the tips of the wing- 

 covers are blackish, and there are some little red lines between 

 the broad band and the tips. The head is crescent-shaped above, 

 and the eyelets are situated just below the ridge of the front, f 

 The vine-hoppers, as they may be called, inhabit the foreign and 

 the native grape-vines, on the under surface of the leaves of which 

 they may be found during the greater part of the summer ; for 

 they pass through all their changes on the vines. They make 

 their first appearance on the leaves in June, when they are very 

 small and not provided with wings, being then in the larva state. 

 During most of the time they remain perfectly quiet, with their 

 beaks thrust into the leaves from which they derive their nourish- 

 ment by suction. If disturbed, however, they leap from one leaf 

 to another with great agility. As they increase in size they have 

 occasion frequently to change their skins, and great numbers of 

 their empty cast-skins, of a white color, will be found, throughout 

 the summer, adhering to the under-sides of the leaves and upon 

 the ground beneath the vines. When arrived at maturity, which 

 generally occurs during the month of August, they are still more 

 agile than before, making use of their delicate wings as well as 

 their legs in their motions from place to place ; and, when the 

 leaves are agitated, they leap and fly from them in swarms, but 

 soon alight and begin again their destructive operations. The in- 

 fested leaves at length become yellow, sickly, and prematurely 

 dry, and give to the vine at midsummer the aspect it naturally as- 

 sumes on the approach of winter. But this is not the only injury 

 arising from the exhausting punctures of the vine-hoppers. In 



* Article Locust, p. 43. 



t This species must belong to the same genus as Cicada blandula of Rossi and 

 Fallen, which it resembles in form and in the situation of the ocelli or eyelets. 



