cal American genus Phenax, the members of which fly 

 about with large masses of this waxy substance several 

 times as long as themselves. Larvae of a maggot-like 

 nature are frequently found hidden in the wax of the living 

 Fulgorids of this genus. 



I { / I^th^forbii ,6f body the various genera differ so greatly 



. , tjia,t, if .only superficially examined, they appear to have 



:*\: \ vjeibf -littfe in. io'mnion. Some of them resemble very much 



small butterflies and moths and others might easily be 



mistaken for neuropterous insects. The nymphs are often 



totally different in appearance from the adults. 



All are vegetable feeders and are found on the under- 

 sides of the leaves and along the stems of various herba- 

 ceous plants, shrubs and trees, sucking the juices, prefer- 

 ably from the larger veins or ribs. 



The average student and even the professional ento- 

 mologist knows little or practically nothing about the Ful- 

 goridae and the relative systematic position of its mem- 

 bers. This is due primarily to the insufficient and widely 

 scattered literature on the subject, which is generally not 

 readily accessible to the ordinary worker. When the latter 

 is so fortunate as to obtain access to the original reference 

 it is usually only to find that it is in Latin, French or 

 German. 



Early in his work upon Fulgoridae it became evident 

 to the writer that a faunistic study of the group together 

 with uniform keys and descriptions would be a welcome 

 addition. A knowledge of the systematics of a group 

 is essential before one can work out the economic status 

 and the ecological relationships of its members. It is also 

 necessary to know what forms occur within a State and 

 their relative abundance. 



The material used for this treatise consisted of the 

 large private collection of Prof. Herbert Osborn, kindly 

 placed at my disposal, and a large amount of material 

 collected by the writer in South Carolina, Florida and Mis- 

 sissippi. While employed by the State Plant Board of 

 Mississippi, from June 15, 1920, to September 15, 1921, 

 opportunity was offered to do representative and intensive 

 collecting and many notes were taken of food plants and 

 ecological habitats. 



4 



