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CHAPTER XXIII. 



HOMOPTERA. 



THE order HOMOPTERA will best be brought before the 

 reader by the mention of two familiar insects which it 

 contains. These are the " Cuckoo-spit" insect, or 

 " Frog -hopper," and the common green Eose Aphis. A 

 very slight examination of these will show the characters 

 of the order, and the points of difference between it and 

 others. 



First, then, to take the Cuckoo-spit (Aphrophora 

 spumaria, PL XII., fig. 2), we see a little hopping 

 creature, with fore-wings of a thickened texture, and 

 placed when at rest in a shelving or roof-like position. 

 So far it agrees with the Grasshoppers and Locusts in 

 Orthoptera. 



Next take the winged Rose Aphis. Four delicate 

 membranous wings, united in flight by hooks, at once 

 suggest the order Hymenoptera ; but (setting aside all 

 other characters to be presently described) look to the 

 mouth in either of these insects, and it at once appears 

 that, there being no biting jaws, but a sucking apparatus 

 in the shape of a tubular rostrum or proboscis, it must 

 belong to the second division of the order, consisting of 

 Sucking insects. 



Now, the only other order with which there is any 

 excuse for confounding Homoptera, is that which fol- 



