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CHAPTER YII. 



CARPENTRY OF TREE-HOPRERS AND SAW-FLIES. 



The operations of an insect in boring into a leaf or a bud 

 to form a lodgment for its eggs appear very simple. The 

 tools, however, by which these effects are performed are 

 very complicated and curious. In the case of gall-flies 

 (Ci/m'ps), the operation itself is not so remarkable as its 

 subsequent chemical effects. These effects are so different 

 from any others that may be classed under the head of 

 Insect Architectu]e, that we shall reserve them for the 

 latter part of this volume ; although, with reference to the 

 use of galls, the protection of eggs and larvae, they ought 

 to find a place here. AVe shall, however, at present confine 

 ourselves to those which simply excavate a nest, without 

 producing a tumour. 



The first of these insects which we shall mention is 

 celebrated for its song, by the ancient Greek poets, under 

 the name of Tettix. The Eomans called it Cicada, which 

 we sometimes, but erroneously, translate " grasshopper;" 

 for the grasshoppers belong to an entirely different order of 

 insects. We shall, therefore, take the liberty of calling the 

 Cicadse Treehoppers, to which the cuckoo-spit insect {^Telti- 

 gonia spumaria, Oliv.) is allied ; but there is only one of 

 the true Cicadas hitherto ascertained to be British, namely, 

 the Cicada hcematodes (Linn.), which Avas discovered in the 

 New Forest, Hampshire, by Mr. Daniel Bydder. 



M. Reaumur was exceedingly anxious to study the eco- 

 nomy of those insects ; but they not being indigenous in 

 the neighbourhood of Paris, he commissioned his friends to 

 send him some from more southern latitudes, and he pro- 

 cured in this way specimens not only from the South of 

 France and from Italy, but also from Egypt. From these 

 specimens he has given the best account of them yet 



K 



