1915.] F. H. GRAVELY: Indian Insects, Myriapods, etc. 515 
Several species of Membracidae are common on a number of 
different kinds of shrubs. They are usually sluggish insects and 
slip round the branch on which they are seated when disturbed. 
Only as a last resort do they jump or fly, although they can do 
both quite well. The posterior end of the female is armed with 
two pairs of fine lancets in a protecting sheath. With the aid of 
these the eggs are laid in rows embedded horizontally in the bark 
of the twig, from which only one end of each protrudes (pl. xxiii, 
figs. 16-17). The larvae (pl. xxiii, figs. 20-22) are brown or black, 
with an eversible reddish appendage at the posterior end of the 
body (fig. 22). They are commonly more or less gregarious. Even 
adults (pl. xxili, figs. 17-19) seem to scatter little if at all when not 
compelled to do so. Consequently very large numbers are usually 
found living together on an infected bush. ‘They are generally 
attended by big black ants (pl. xxiii, fig. £7). 
Cercopidae. 
The habits of Machaerota guttigera have been described by 
Westwood from notes supplied to him by Mr. S. Green (Trans. 
Ent. Soc. London, 1886, pp. 329-333, pl. viii). 
The habits of M. planitiae ', which is common on Zizyphus 
jujuba in Calcutta (pl. xxiii, fig. 13), are very similar. The larva 
(pl. xxiii, figs. 9-12) always lives head-downwards in its tube, 
which, though closed at the base, is not entirely shut off from the 
twig to which it is attached. I have never seen the larva come 
out to feed, as Westwood supposed that of M. guttigera must do; 
and it is so helpless when removed from its tube that I doubt if it 
could safely do this. It must, I think, obtain all its nourishment 
from the supporting twig through the pore at the base of the 
tube, through which its stylets may sometimes be seen to pro- 
trude when the tube is separated from the twig. 
As Green watched the commencement of tube-building by 
some newly-hatched larvae of M. guttigera, he felt that ‘‘it must 
be a close fit by the time they are ready to assume the perfect 
state.’’ The difficulty is overcome by each larva producing two 
tubes—first a small one, and then a larger one. A separate small 
tube is always found at the base of each big one (pl. xxiii, fig. 8), 
I have seen the larva of another tubicolous form, protected only 
by a frothy fluid, at work commencing the latter at the base of 
the former. 
The habits of another insect, Hindoloides indicans, Distant”, 
which is common here on Zizyphus jujuba, are similar to those 
of Machaerota. i have, however, several times watched the emer- 
gence of its adult at about sunset. In Machaerota guttigera, ac- 
cording to Green, emergence occurs shortly after sunrise, and I 
think this is probably also the case with M. planitiae. 
L | am indebted to Mr. Distant for this identification. 
2 Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (8) xv, pp. 506-507. 
