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XVIII. On certain genera and species of the group of 

 Psyllidffi in the collection of the British Museum. 

 By John Scott. 



[Read July 5th, 1882.] 



Plates XVIII., XIX. 



In the following pnges I have set myself the task of 

 attempting to clear away the cloud which for a long time 

 has hung over and ohscured in doubt certain members 

 of this group in the -National Collection. For some years 

 I have been importuned, by my friends on the Continent 

 especially, to examine and report up.on them, but an 

 opportunity has not previously presented itself to permit 

 of my doing so thoroughly. At last I have concluded 

 the work, and the result will be found in the addition of 

 some new genera, which was to be anticipated after a 

 searching investigation. Things had somehow or other 

 got terribly " mixed," as the saying is, and I would that 

 "he had avoided Psijlla,'' and thus have prevented the 

 difficulties experienced in recognising any of the insects 

 by the descriptions given. The genera also to which 

 they had been assigned, as will be seen hereafter, only 

 made "confusion worse confounded," and no wonder 

 therefore that those who were paying attention to, and 

 interesting themselves about, the group should desire 

 anxiously to know whether any new forms, or additional 

 subfamilies or genera were to be added to our present 

 knowledge of these insects. What we have hitherto 

 known about them has been almost entirely confined to 

 European species, and I have no doubt that careful 

 observation in other countries, judging from what I have 

 now seen, will some day or other show how limited our 

 views of this section of the Homoptera at present are. 

 I would also, impress upon collectors i^i other lands the 

 necessity for ascertaining their life-history — whether 

 they roll up a leaf, or make galls thereon ; or whether 

 they attack the shoots and branches. of trees or shrubs, 

 and how such attacks are made manifest ; and with this 

 advice I now proceed to the completion of my work. 



. TRANS. ENT. SOC. 1882. — PART III. (SEPT.) 



