278 



"The eggs are laid in a chamber formed by the ovipositor of 

 tlie female in the tissues of the leaf or in the stem of the cane. 

 The ovipositor is held at right angles to the ventral surface, and 

 its point of attachment just behind the posterior legs is very 

 clearly seen when the tip is inserted into the tissues of the leaf. 

 The number of eggs contained in one of these chambers varies 

 considerably. Lately in Hamakua district 1 carefully opened 

 some hundreds of these chambers and found the number of eggs 

 ii each to be from one to twelve in number. That end of the 

 eggs which is nearest the external surface is the head of the 

 future leaf-hopper and the red pigment spots, which form the 

 eyes of the newly-emerged insect, are conspicuous at some dis- 

 tance behind the narrow apical extermity of the egg before it 

 hatches. In the leaves the eggs are deposited on either surface 

 of the thicker parts, and being of elongate form, tliey usually 

 reach about half way through the tissues. The scar is always 

 visible and is often covered with a little whitish excretion.* The 

 apex or head of the eggs is generally just about level with the 

 surface of the leaf, but sometimes they even protrude a little from 

 the orifice of the chamber. The young emerge perpendicularly, 

 head first, sometimes two together from the chambei, and as 

 they emerge, the appendages at first apparently stuck to the 

 body become free, and the little insect is at once active, and 

 may be seen to perform peculiar sidling or retrograde move- 

 ments similar to those of older ones or of the adult. As a num- 

 ber of individuals generally hatch from a single chamber, and 

 as 'the chambers are extremely numerous in a single leaf, very 

 mai'.v being sometimes present in a square inch of surface, and 

 .'is also in stripped cane thousands of these chambers may be 

 ])resent in a single stick, the total number of leaf-hoppers that 

 can, and sometimes do, emerge from a single stick and its crown 

 of leaves is almost incredible. 



"The young- when they hatch are of sociable nature and gre- 

 garious and especially congregate at the base of the leaves, and 

 this habit is also largely retained by the adults, which often also 

 form large flocks in the seclusion of the youngest leaves of the 

 crown. It is in the immature stages while growth is proceeding 

 that the chief damage to the cane is done and the great excretion 

 of the honey-dew taket place." (Perkins.) 



The first nymphal instar is conspicuous on account of the 



* The secretion is very feeble pomprtied witli that of tlie Aiitillean Stenocranus sac 

 cha7-ivora (Westwood), or some of the Nortli Aniei-icaii spofies investigated by Swezey 



G. W. K. 



