122 LEAF-HOUPPERS. 
Although common enough, it has never been reported as 
injurious. 
A number of genera such as Bythoscopus, Pediopsis, Idoce- 
rus, and Agallia are illustrated on Plates 1V-VIII; most of them 
are grass-destroying insects, but some of them occur upon our 
fruit-producing plants. These insects form the sub-family By- 
thoscopida of some authors. 
FAMILY JASSIDAE. 
(Leaf-hop pers). 
Prof. Comstock in his “Introduction” writes of this family 
as follows: 
“This, the highest family of the Homoptera, is a very ex- 
tensive one. And it is also of considerable economic importance; 
for it includes a number of species that are very injurious to 
vegetation. The body is more slender than in the preceding 
family; with which this agrees in the insertion of the antennz 
in front of and between the eyes, and in the absence of a pro- 
longation of the prothorax above the abdomen. But the most 
salient character which distinguishes the Jassidz is the structure 
of the hind tibiz. These are nearly or quite as long as the 
abdomen, curved, and armed with a row of spines on each mar- 
gin. The form of the body is ‘commonly long and slender, often 
spindle-shaped, with a large transverse prothorax not much wider 
than the head. The front is generally an oblique, cross-ribbed, 
inflated prominence, with the cheeks touching the anterior coxe, 
but rarely, if ever, restraining their movement. They have a 
rather large triangular scutellum; the wing-covers curve over the 
sides of the abdomen, appear as tapering towards the tip, and the 
membrane is distinguished from the more leathery corium.’” 
(Uhler). 
Very few persons are aware of the amount of annual losses 
which leaf-hoppers cause to our cultivated and wild grasses, yet 
it is simply enormous. When we walk over the grasses cover- 
ing our lawns, meadows and the prairies and roadsides, we can 
see myriads of little insects jumping and flying away as soon 
as disturbed, to settle again a moment later. Nearly all these 
small and active beings are sap-sucking leaf-hoppers, as shown 
