THE SCARLET HOPPER. A 39 



rather homy skin. The perfect insect jumps when alarmed, 

 but can only leap a very short distance. 



The larva of this insect is shown at Fig. 2 of the same Plate. 

 It is coloured much like the adult insect, but has no mngs nor 

 the least signs of the conspicuous ' ears ' which decorate it 

 when adult. Even when it assumes the pupal state these 

 prelections are not visible, their places being merely indicated 

 by two raised knobs. It is not a common insect, and has been 

 mostly taken in the New Forest by beating it out of oak. The 

 larva feeds upon oak, and does not surround itself with the 

 frothy secretion so familiar to us as Cuckoo-sj)it. One of them 

 was discovered by the Eev. T. A. Marshall, while digging at 

 the roots of an oak in January ; this discovery proving that 

 the insect hibernates while still in the larval state. It has 

 been found in Purfleet in Kent. 



On the same Plate, Fig. 3, is shown a very beautiftd insect, 

 which in point of colour is by far the handsomest of our British 

 Homoptera. This is the Scarlet HorPER (^Triepphora — or 

 Gercopis — sanguinolerda). It is impossible to give in the 

 simple- black and white of printer's-ink an idea of the beautiful 

 and bold colouring of this insect. 



That part which appears as white is rich scarlet, and the rest 

 deep black, both having a velvety appearance. When one of 

 these beautiful wings is placed under the microscope, the cause 

 of the rich velvety look is at once shown. The sm-face of the 

 wing, instead of being smooth, as it appears to the unaided eye, 

 is covered with a vast number of minute rounded projections, 

 very much like those on the upper surface of a geranium petal. 

 An irregular network of fine black lines traverses the whole of 

 the wing, and at each of the intersections there is a round 

 black spot with a translucent centre, the whole of these markings 

 having the effect of softening and enriching the colour in a 

 very effective manner. Both the black and the red portions of 

 the wing are thus adorned. 



This handsome insect is very local, and in many parts of the 

 country is never seen. It used to be very plentiful in Bagley 

 Wood, near Oxford, and all the specimens in my collection 

 were taken there by myself in 1847. It was always found on 

 the fern, and was mostly captured by using the sweep-net at 



