Xxviii Introduction. 



The Austrian naturalist Dr. Franz Fieber issued in 

 1872 his ' Catalogue of the Cicadse of Europe,' which 

 work was to have been the precursor of a larger one. 

 Unfortunately for Science Dr. Fieber never lived to 

 complete his task. His unfinished papers came under 

 the supervision of his friend Dr. Puton, who long 

 sought a fitting opportunity for editing them. M. 

 Ferd. Reiber finally purchased numerous papers of 

 Dr. Fieber's widow, which he arranged and edited in 

 French in 1875. Although portions of Fieber's work 

 were lost, MM. Puton and Lethierry (the possessors 

 of many of Fieber's drawings) supplied descriptions 

 to the new genera erected by Fieber, ancl also 

 diagnoses of such species as were missing. 



Fieber points out, in his Preface, the difficulties 

 which beset the student in his attempts to classify the 

 Cicadinae in a natural manner. He remarks that the 

 neuration of the elytra and wings is of the first import- 

 ance for the erection of the genera of Cicadinse; but 

 that the characters drawn from the forms of the head, the 

 antenna, the pro- and mesonotum, and the spurring and 

 serratures of the legs, are also of material help towards 

 forming sound conclusions. One essential character 

 must not be overlooked. There exists in several genera 

 a very remarkable diversity of form in the apparatus 

 attached to the genitalia of both sexes. In many cases 

 therefore difficult species may be separated by an 

 adequate examination of the corneous styles, hooks, and 

 coupling apparatus commonly found at the terminal 

 abdominal rings of the males. In some tribes these 

 styles are free, and can be seen with comparative ease, 

 as in the Delphacidae and the Deltocephalidae, but in 

 other tribes, like the Typhlocybidae and the Jassidae, 

 they mostly are hidden, and require much patience 

 and address to bring them into view. The coloration 

 of the various species must not be neglected ; still, 

 from its great liability to variation, the value of its 

 evidence sometimes is not very high. 



Dr. Stal procured for Fieber's inspection type- 



