152 THK ENTOMOLOGIST. 



peculiarities. Furthermore, it is well known that an empodial 

 formation exists in all families except Stridulantia. 



This empodium is, what has apparently hitherto escaped 

 notice, differently formed in these families. And, first of all, I 

 may say that I have never found fastening-hairs on the empodia; 

 and that in the same insect these are essentially similar in all 

 three pairs of legs. For practical reasons, I describe the tarsi of 

 the Jassidse before those of the Cercopidae. 



1. Jassida. — The empodium is always firmly fixed to the inner 

 surface of the claivs out to a short space from or even more nearly 

 out to their apices, ivhile its free terminal margin is always deeply 

 incised in the middle line (pi. ii. f. 9, tarsus of Ledra aurita ; 

 f. 10, of Ulopa reticulata ; f. 11, of Membracis tectigera). From 

 observations upon dry specimens with a lens, one receives, as a 

 rule, the decided impression that the empodium forms a thicker 

 rampart along each claw from base to close out to its apex, and 

 that between the claws it is cleft close to the base ; this form is 

 fundamentally different from that which one observes in dried 

 Fulgoridfe (see below). On account of the contraction caused by 

 the shrinkage in drying, the cleft appears in dried specimens to 

 be very much stronger than it actually is in fresh material ; but, 

 when treated with potash, the empodia regain practically their 

 proi)er form as they are represented in my figures. In the forms 

 examined by me the empodia have at the middle, or towards the 

 base, two short and broad, or long and narrow, somewhat firmly 

 chitinised plates (ff. 9 and 11 1) on the upper surface, the rest 

 of which is for the most part, or totally, membranous ; the 

 under surface is membranous, and does not possess longitudinal 

 plates or the processes occurring near the outer angles of the 

 empodia in the following family. 



2. Cercopidae. — In these the empodia are proportionately 

 thicker and more substantial than in the Jassidfe ; in many, and 

 especially in larger forms, they are united with the inner surface 

 of the claws for a good half of the length of these ; in others the 

 connection with the claws extends out to a little way from the 

 apex of the latter, and in these forms they are very strong and 

 thick. In a softened and distended state their apical margin 

 often reaches out a good way beyond the claws (pi. ii. f. 12), but 

 this margin is, contrary to its state in Jassidse, not sharply nor 

 deeply incised, hut entire or somewhat emarginate. The upper 

 surface is towards the base occupied by a triangular chitinous 

 plate (121), which is more or less membranous along the middle 

 line, and which manifestly answers to the two separated plates 

 in the Jassidae. Exterior to this plate one (always ?) finds in the 

 middle line a peculiar bristle (g), consisting of a thicker cylin- 

 drical basal part, and, jointed to this, a bristle-shaped terminal 

 portion along the under side (12 a, b) runs close to the 

 lateral margins, a firmly chitinised setiferous band ; similar 



