198 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO VEGETATION. 



tions of a small insect, which, for many years, was supposed 

 to be the vine-fretter of Europe. It is not, however, the same 

 insect, but is a leaf-hopper, and was first described by me in 

 the year 1831, in the eighth volume of the " Encyclopaedia 

 Americana,"* under the naine of Tettig'onia Vitis. In its 

 perfect state it measures one tenth of an inch in length. It 

 is of a pale yellow or straw color ; there are two little red lines 

 on the head; the back part of the thorax, the scutel, the base 

 of the wing-covers, and a broad band across their middle, are 

 scarlet; the tips of the wing-covers are blackish, and there are 

 some little red lines between the broad band and the tips. 

 The head is crescent-shaped above, and the eyelets are situ- 

 ated just below the ridge of the front. The vine-hoppers, as 

 they may be called, inhabit the foreign and the native grape- 

 vines, on the under surface of the leaves of which they may 

 be found during the greater part of the summer; for they pass 

 through all their changes on the vines. They make their first 

 appearance on the leaves in June, when they are very small 

 and not provided with wings, being then in the larva state. 

 During most of the time they remain perfectly quiet, with 

 their beaks thrust into the leaves from which they derive their 

 nourishment by suction. If disturbed, however, they leap 

 from one leaf to another with great agility. As they increase 

 in size they have occasion frequently to change their skins, 

 and great numbers of their empty cast skins, of a white color, 

 will be found, throughovit the summer, adhering to the under 

 sides of the leaves and upon the ground beneath the vines. 

 When arrived at maturity, which generally occurs during the 

 month of August, they are still more agile than before, making 

 use of their delicate wings as well as their legs in their motions 

 from place to place ; and, when the leaves are agitated, they 

 leap and fly from them in swarms, but soon alight and begin 

 again their destructive operations. The infested leaves at 

 length become yellow, sickly, and prematurely dry, and give to 

 the vine at midsummer the aspect it naturally assumes on the 

 approach of winter. But this is not the only injury arising 



* Article Locust, p. 43. 



