34 NATURE STUDY. 



A Queer House. 



BY SUSY C. FOGG. 



A walk in the unmown fields in early summer is ren- 

 dered somewhat unpleasant by the frequent masses of a 

 frothy substance which adhere to blades of grass and other 

 vegetation, but are easilj^ brushed off onto shoes and cloth- 

 ing. 



One person asks: — "Is it the work of frogs or tree- 

 toads? " another, "Is it caused by snakes? " and a third 

 surmises that they may be eggs of some insect. 



By opening one of these masses a small greenish insect 

 is revealed, only a few millimetres in length, with an ab- 

 normal frontal development of the head and a strong beak 

 attached. His whole makeup bears the general " air" of 

 the Hemiptera, order of " true bugs," and belongs to the 

 family Cercopidae, a name from the Greek Cercops who 

 belonged to a race of fabled men. Why the connection ? 



I tried recently the experiment of removing entirely from 

 their moist location three of these insects, and found them 

 well able to run about, having well developed legs and 

 tarsal claws. After a period of seventeen hours, I placed 

 them again on fresh- blades of grass. They appeared ac- 

 tive, at once inserted the rostrum into the grass stalk, and 

 simultaneously with this pumping process, gently raised 

 the tip of the abdomen and with a swaying movement from 

 side to side threw off bubbles of the sap as soap bubbles 

 are thrown from a pipe. In half an hour the mass of 

 foam was equal in size to that of the insect; in one hour 

 the envelope was again complete. 



This covering under a lens looks like a house of glass 

 globules and has great brilliancy. No one of us knows, 

 I suppose, how great a luxury life may be to the creature 

 within it and if the material of its construction is not 



