THE PYGOPHORE. liii 



The Pygophore and Pygotheqiie. 



The number of abdominal rings in the Cicadinae is 

 not easy to decide, on account of the union of several 

 somites to form the pygophore. This last is a complex 

 apparatus, forming a kind of box for enclosing the 

 saws and rasps of the female, and the claspers and 

 the penis of the male. Prof. C. Eiley, the indefatigable 

 American entomologist, says that the male apparatus 

 is so effective as a clasper in Cicada sepUndeccui, that 

 when the insects are caught in coiti't they fail to dis- 

 engage themselves immediately, and then one or the 

 other usually leaves the last abdominal segments 

 behind it. Such insects will live some days after this 

 extensive mutilation, flyiDg about freely; but singularly, 

 he observes, they then are liable to the attack of a 

 kind of fungus, which converts the internal organs into 

 a dry powder, apparently composed of fungoid spores. 



A similar mutilation of the honey-bee is well known, 

 in which the sting is mostly lost with the terminal 

 rings, from the failure in the excited insect to retract 

 its barbed lancets. 



The pygophore encloses the anal aperture {after- 

 f literal), and the anal pieces, which in the Deli:)hacida3 

 are grouped within a circle. At the superior border of 

 this circle, and in the medial line, is placed the anal 

 tube [after steUchcn), which has various forms and 

 lengths, and often has lobes or hooks at its base [cide 

 Plate XVIII., fig. '2 a, and Plate XIX., fig. 'Ic). At 

 the inferior part of the pygophore we find, amongst 

 the DelphacichiB, two free styles attached at their bases. 

 Mr. J. Scott employed these last appendages as helps 

 to discriminate several nearly allied species. The 

 pygophore of the male shows in profile the porte-penis 

 and the styles, with its hooks and filaments disposed 

 on each side {vide Plates A, V., VL, VII, XIX., 

 XXL, &c.). 



Amongst the Jassida^, the pygotheque occurs below 

 the pygophore, and is composed of two walls, " parois 



