200 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO VEGETATION. 



housed plants. Their numerous cast skins may be seen ad- 

 hering to the lower side of the leaves. They pair and lay 

 their eggs about the middle of June, and they probably live 

 through the winter in the perfect state, concealed under fallen 

 leaves and rubbish on the surface of the ground. Fumigations 

 with tobacco, and the application of a solution of whale-oil 

 soap in water with a syringe, are the best means for destroying 

 these leaf-hoppers. 



I have found that the Windsor bean, a variety of the Vicia 

 Faba of Linnseus, is subject to the attacks of a species of leaf- 

 hopper, particularly during dry seasons, and when cultivated 

 in light soils. In the early part of summer the insects are so 

 small and so light colored that they easily escape observation, 

 and it is not till the beginning of July, when the beans are 

 usually large enough to be gathered for the table, that the 

 ravages of the insects lead to their discovery. A large pro- 

 portion of the pods will then be found to be rough, and covered 

 with little dark colored dots or scars, and many of them seem 

 to be unusually spongy and not well filled. On opening these 

 spongy pods, we find that the beans have not grown to their 

 proper size, and if they are left on the plant they cease to 

 enlarge. At the same time the leaves, pods, and stalks are 

 more or less infested with little leaf-hoppers, not fully grown, 

 and unprovided with wings. Usually between the end of July 

 and the middle of August the insects come to their growth 

 and acquire their wings; but the mischief at this time is 

 finished, and the plants have suffered so much that all pros- 

 pect of a second crop of beans, from new shoots produced 

 after the old stems are cut down, is frustrated. These leaf- 

 hoppers have the same agility in their motions, and apparently 

 the same habits, as the vine-hoppers; but in the perfect state 

 they are longer, more slender, and much more delicate. They 

 are of a pale green color; the wing-covers and wings are 

 transparent and colorless; and the last joint of the hind feet is 

 bluish. The head, as seen from above, is crescent-shaped, and 

 the two eyelets are situated on its front edge. The male has 

 two long recurved feathery threads at the extremity of the 

 body. The length of this species is rather more than one 



