178 The Naturalist in Nicaragua 
as in some of the Fulgoride. In others it is more abundant, 
and it reaches its extreme limit in a species of Phenax that I 
found at Santo Domingo. The insect is about an inch in 
length, but the waxy secretion forms a long thick tail of 
cotton-like fibres, two inches in length, that gives the insect 
a most curious appearance when flying.- This flocculent 
mass is so loosely connected with the body that it is difficult 
to catch the insect without breaking the greater part of it 
off. Mr. Bates has suggested that the large brittle wings of 
the metallic Morphos may often save them from being caught 
by birds, who are likely to seize some portion of the wide 
expanse of wing, and this, breaking off, frees the butterfly. 
Probably the long cumbersome tail of the Phenax has a 
similar use. When flying, it is the only portion of the insect 
seen; and birds trying to capture it on the wing are likely to 
get only a mouthful of the flocculent wax. The large Homop- 
tera are much preyed upon by birds. In April, when the 
Cicade are piping their shrill cry from morning until night, 
individuals are often seen whose bulky bodies: have been 
bitten off from the thorax by some bird. The large and 
graceful swallow-tailed kite at that time feeds on nothing 
else. I have seen these kites sweeping round in circles over 
the tree-tops, and every now and then catching insects off 
the leaves, and on shooting them I have found their crops 
filled with Cicade. | 
The frog-hoppers, besides exuding honey in some genera 
and wax in others, in a third division emit, when in the larval 
state, a great quantity of froth, in which they lie concealed, 
as in the common “ cuckoo-spit ” of our meadows. 
