INTRODUCTION 



NEED FOR A GENERIC REVISION of the Cicadelliiiae became obvious 

 to me during the more than seven years I worked at the U.S. 

 National Museum on the staff of the Division of Insect Identification, 

 U.S. Department of Agriculture. Specimens of cicadellines sent in 

 from all over the world, but especially from the Neotropical region, 

 could rarely be identified to genus on the basis of existing literature. 

 Even when it was possible to identify a species, it was often impossible 

 to apply a generic name which would not form a new combination. 

 This raised the possibility of all sorts of new combinations being 

 published in obscure journals normally not consulted by systematists, 

 without their respective authors knowing they were new combinations, 

 and with consequent difficulties to cataloguers. 



In 1952, a preliminary investigation revealed that the male genitalia 

 offered characters of generic worth in most cicadelline genera and of 

 specific value in many of the genera. To undertake such a large reclassi- 

 fication then would have been impossible in view of the pressing 

 demands on my time for routine identifications. A small beginning 

 was made, however, and a study of the genus Draeculacephala Ball and 

 a synopsis of the North American species of Homalodisca Stal were 

 published. 



In 1957 I moved to Nordi Carolina, where more research time 

 became available and where, through the generosity of officials of 

 North Carolina State University at Raleigh and through a National 

 Science Foundation grant, it became possible to study in Europe for 

 one year (1962-63). During that time, most of the types of Cicadel- 

 linae were studied in museums in Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, 

 Hungary, Poland, Denmark, Sweden, Belgium, France, and England. 

 Lectotypes were designated by me in a series of papers, one of which 

 is still in press, with the statement that diagnostic characters would 

 be illustrated in a generic classification to be published later. Many of 

 the illustrations of the proconiine lectotypes are published herein. 

 The diagnostic characters of lectotypes of species not mentioned in 

 the text agree with the illustrations published here, most of which 

 were made before the lectotypes were examined. Where problems of 



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