

JOURNAL 



OF THE 



pptD ]9oFh €!nl'QnioIogirflI ^oriFJ^g. 



Vol. XXVIII. JUNE, 1920 No. 2 



NORTH AMERICAN CICADAS BELONGING TO THE 

 GENERA PLATYPEDIA AND MELAMPSALTA. 



By Wm. T. Davis, 

 New Brighton, Staten Islaxd, N. Y. 



The genus Platypcdia was described by Uhler in Entomologica 

 Americana, Vol. IV, p. 23, April, 1888, and Cicada arcolata Uhler, 

 1861, and Cicada pntiiaiiii Uhler, 1877, were cited as belonging to the 

 group. The original description of the genus is as follows : " Elon- 

 gate, acutely tapering posteriorly, with a sub-carinate ridge on the 

 tergum, extending from near the base to beyond the middle ; wing- 

 covers when at rest almost vertical. Head bluntly triangular, hirsute, 

 the vertex gently sloping, almost as long as the pronotum, with the 

 transverse sulcus deep and direct, not triangularly parted; the an- 

 terior ocellus placed in a longitudinal groove, which latter is con- 

 tinued upon the turmid front ; front quite prominent, strongly convex ; 

 exterior cheeks long and narrow ; supra-antennal plates narrow, thick, 

 bounded each side by a notch. Pronotum short, moderately hirsute, 

 with the dorsal surface feebly convex, not corrugated, but with two 

 oblique grooves each side, the lateral margins almost straight, with 

 the anterior angles feebly reflexed, and the posterior angles narrowly, 

 but abruptly turned up; epipleural flaps as long as the pronotum, 

 broadly crescentiform, but a little triangularly produced obliquely 

 backwards and downwards. Anterior femora short and stout, swollen 

 in the middle, grooved on the outside near the tip. Wing-covers wide, 

 strongly bowed on the costal margin, the areoles large and mostly 



!)5 



