LERP INSECTS. 389 



seen with the lens, with a few of the dainty, pale 

 g-reen adults, it is a very beautiful sight. 



The life history of the sugar-scale lerp can be 

 nicely seen by collecting lerp scale insects of all 

 sizes, from the tiny baby scales to the larger ones 

 Avith wing-pads. By keeping some of the larger 

 scales in a box, one may see the adult lerps a little 

 later. The eggs are in clusters or in rows, often 

 along the midrib of gum-leaves ; they are of a 

 brown colour, and it is hard to distinguish tliem. 

 (Plate 49, Fig. 5.) The lerp scale, when viewed with 

 a lens, is very beautiful, like bands of ribbon with 

 an irregular edge or fringe. (Plate 49, Fig. 4.) 



TREEHOPPERS. 



FAMILY MEMBRACIDiE. 



These are small insects which Comstock calls 

 *' Nature's jokes." The first segment of the thorax 

 is bent over the body and produced to form pro- 

 jections or spines, so as to give the insects most 

 strange and weird forms from the face view. 

 (Plate 48, Fig. 10.) They are similar in habit of 

 feeding to the other insects of this group. They 

 are never sufficiently numerous to be pests. 



