THE SHOVEL-NOSED LEAFHOPPER. 65 
between these is a hyaline area with a small, curved, dark spur ex- 
tending in on the center of the outer margin. The abdomen is annu- 
lated with black, and the terminal segment, valve, and attenuate 
plates are black. 
The nymphs are narrow, elongate, closely resembling the female in 
color and in the stripes which extend along the abdomen. 
The nymphs were found at Ames, Iowa, on an isolated patch of 
slough grass (Spartina cynosuroides) early in August. They were 
then nearly full grown. 
At, Ames, Iowa, the adults were taken in coitu in the middle of 
August, and from then on through September were found in some 
numbers on the limited patch where their food plant occurred. 
It is highly probable that the eggs from the autumn generation 
are deposited in the stems of slough grass before the middle of Sep- 
tember, in which case the ordinary time of mowing would be an effec- 
tual remedy, and would account for the rarity of the species in culti- 
vated areas, or in sections annually overrun by prairie fires. 
The species has been collected at many different places in the 
country but never in large numbers. Its paucity in collections, how- 
ever, is not to be considered as proving its rarity, as it is not so easily 
captured as many of the jassids unless its particular habitat is known. 
It had been reported from Kansas and New Jersey, including only 
a few specimens in all, and there was a specimen in the Van Duzee 
collection from New York, and one specimen had been taken at 
Ames and another at Batavia, Iowa, up to the time that its life his- 
tory was studied at Ames. 
At Ames, Iowa, it was found in considerable numbers and observa- 
tions recorded in the Proceedings of the Iowa Academy of Sciences, 
volume 4, 1897. Since then it has been recorded for a number of 
localities and during the summer of 1909 I collected it in South Dakota 
at Brookings in June, at Ada, Minn., in early July, and at Devils 
Lake, N. Dak., late in July. In all probability it may be found over 
much if not all of the territory covered by the coarse slough grass 
(Spartina cynosuroides), which is the only plant on which larve have 
been recorded and which may be the only host plant for the species. 
THE SHOVEL-NOSED LEAFHOPPER. 
(Dorycephalus platyrhynchus Osb.) 
The shovel-nosed leafhopper (Dorycephalus platyrhynchus Osb.) 
is one of the most remarkable of the grass-feeding jassids (see fig. 7), 
being peculiar both in its appearance and habits. It is very seldom 
seen, since it closely resembles the plants on which it occurs and more- 
over does not jump readily as is the case with most of the leafhoppers. 
The records made in Iowa, where its life history was worked out, are 
