-83- 



bhort, or even obsolete ; the tip scale-like, arched, and feebly sinuated at tip with the 

 inner bars of the cross terminated wiih black ; mesosternal process acute, deeply sul- 

 cated, and with the edge strongly reflexed. Wing-covers milky -hyaline, with the 

 costa, basal, and ulnar veins green, but with the veins of the discoidal areoles (except 

 at base), and ihose of the apical, areoles piceous-lilack, sometimes with the latter 

 bordered also with piceous. Opercula confined to the basal segment, narrow, placed 

 obliquely, subreniform ; the metasternum veiy wide between them, triangularly pro- 

 duced over the following segment, scale-like, subtruncate at tip, tymbals delicate, 

 small, subovate, separated by a wide, pubescent segment, which has a broad triang- 

 ular emargination behind. Superior genital flaps accumulate and recurved at tip. 



Length to tip of abdomen II — 13 mm. Expanded wing covers 31— 32 mm. 

 Width of pronotum across the iniddle 3' ',—4 nim. 



From ^Middle and Southern Texas, not on the coast. Only males 

 have thus far been examined ; three specimens of which are at present in 

 my collection. The venation is coarser than in any of the small Cicadas 

 which I have had the opportunity to examine. 



PROARNA, Stael. 



1. P. pulverea, Oliv. {Cicada,) Enc. Melh., V, p. 759. No. 61, Germar, Thon. 

 Ent. Archiv, II, p. 43, 82. 



Proarna pulverea, Stael. Stettin Ent. Zeit., Vol. XXV, 1864, p. 61. 

 Vera Cruz, Cordova and other parts of Mexico. I have examined 

 in all fifteen specimens of this insect from various localities and find it to 

 be fully as variable as P. albida, Oliv. iVom Costa Rica. As the absence 

 or presence of the vittffi upon the vertex, markmg of the scutellum and 

 intensity of color of the spots on the wing-covers vary according to the 

 condition of the specimen and its preparation after capture. I see no 

 reason to separate it from the typical P. gri'sea, Fabr. , as described by 

 Dr. Stael. The prominence of the front etc. depends in part upon the de- 

 gree of shrinkage to which a specimen has been subjected afier death. 

 Only well matured specimens of the Hemiptera should be used in draw- 

 ing up descriptions ; as all others will give only unsatisfactory and de- 

 ceptive inferences. Besides, if tiie head is shrunken a little into the thorax, 

 so as to raise the fore part of the vertex to a somewhat higher level, the 

 front will appear correspondingly more prominent. The mode of curing 

 and drying specimens of the 0'a?^/cz?a makes an important difference in 

 their value for classification, as I have had occasion to know, full well in 

 the tropics, and more abundantly in handling hundreds of specimens of 

 T. septendecim and other species in various parts of North America. Both 

 sexes, too, are almost indispensable in correctly organizing species, as 

 the one supplements the other in yielding distinctive characters. 



2. P. albida, Oliv. {Cicaa'a,) Enc. Meth. V, p. 755, Xo. 39. 



Proarna albida, Stce!. Siettin Yam. Zeit., Vc>l. XX\', 1S64. j). 61. 

 One specimen from Southern Mexico. 'This seems to be a. very 



