﻿Of all Nature's works, amongst the insect tribes, this family is 

 the most remarkable lor the grotesque and extraordinary forms 

 the species exhibit ; the thorax being produced in the shape of 

 horns of the most whimsical figures and in various directions ; 

 sometimes projecting over the head like a helmet, at others 

 forming a tail, which looks quite artificial, and again assuming 

 the characters of ears or the horns of animals. Some of these 

 prodigies are represented in the 18th Plate of Coquebert's 

 Illustrations, in the 4th vol. of Germar's Magazine, and I 

 think in the Magazine of Natural History. 



In essential characters Centrotus nearly resembles the true 

 Cicada?; and for what reason the only two species that inhabit 

 Britain should have been lately placed in two distinct genera, 

 it is difficult to discover, since the differences between them 

 are such as are entirely specific. Indeed we have none of the 

 true Membraces of Fabricius in Britain : they are at once 

 characterized by their compressed form, some of them being 

 so much flattened that they appear as if they had been pressed 

 by some accident; and it is even difficult to pass a pin through 

 them vertically. 



Latreille formerly united Centrotus with Membracis, but 

 lie has since separated them. Fabricius in the Sj/sfetna Itht/n- 

 gotorum has included both our British species in his genus 

 Centrotus; and to render this subject more complete, I shall 

 proceed to describe the type. 



1. C. cornuta Linn. Faun. Suec. 879. — Fah. Ent. Si/st. v. 4. 



]K 11-. n. 22.— Panz. 50. 19.— Don 3. ;V. 83.— Four 

 times as large as C. Genista. Black, clothed with 

 ochreous pubescence, particularly the head and tho- 

 rax; the latter with a triangular horn on each side, 

 and the posterior part forming a long keeled tail 

 hanging over the body. Superior wings shining 

 ochreous, brownish at the base with a macula at the 

 posterior angle, the nervures pale ferruginous. Infe- 

 rior wings iridescent, nervures brown, legs ferrugi- 

 nous, thighs piceous black. 

 Common in woods, gardens and hedges; on thistles, wil- 

 lows, nut-bushes, white-thorns, laurels, box-trees, heath, the 

 underside of dock-leaves, &c. in INIay and June. 



2. C. Genistfc Fab.— Curtis Brit. Ent. pi. 313. 



Found in August on conunons upon Genista tinctoria 

 (Dyer's Grcen-wced), the plant that accompanies the insect. 



