NOTES ON THE CERCOPID/E WITH DESCRIPTIONS OF 

 SOME NEW SPECIES 



E. D. BALL 



No additions have been made to the records of Iowa Ccrcopidcc 

 since the writer presented his papers on this group in 1895 and 1897 ; 

 in fact, only one new species has been added to the United States 

 list since that time. 



There have, however, been a number of rather surprising addi- 

 tions and extensions of distribution and some of them point to the 

 probability of two more species being found in Iowa and the distri- 

 bution of two others being extended beyond what appeared at that 

 time to be their probable limits. 



The Cercopidcc are a strikingly distinct group from the fact that 

 their larvae produce a frothy secretion inside of which they develop. 

 This froth or spittle appears to serve the double purpose of conceal- 

 ment and absolute protection from all parasitic forms, as no para- 

 sites of Cercopidcc have been found. The food plants and larvae of 

 quite a number of species are as yet unknown and among them are 

 the four mentioned below. 



Tomaspis bicincta. This is the only representative found in the 

 United States of a tropical group large in numbers and in size. It is 

 found in the southern states and up the Atlantic coast to Massachu- 

 setts. The only record for Iowa is the single specimen taken by the 

 writer at Ames in 1893. This was thought at the time to be a speci- 

 men that had been blown up from more southern locations. The 

 writer last season (1918) took a single specimen at Madison, Wis- 

 consin, along the margin of a marsh, in a situation practically iden- 

 tical with that in which the Ames specimen was found. Both speci- 

 mens were apparently fresh and it now seems probable that it will 

 be found in suitable localities throughout the state where search is 

 made. Nothing is known of its food plant or larvae. 



Philaenus parallelus Str. This species was described recently 

 from examples from northern Wisconsin. There is a single example 

 from central Illinois, collected by the late Charles Hart, in the 

 collection of the Illinois State Laboratory. Last season (1918) 

 the writer took five examples from a marsh at Balsam lake, Wis- 

 consin. They were all beaten from a single species of sedge grow- 



