154 CICADA. 



ceases to absorb any longer the juices of the plant 

 and to discharge the protecting froth, which, at 

 this period, forms a vaulted canopy over the in- 

 sect, instead of entirely investing it as before: the 

 skin of the larva is gradually thrown off, and the 

 animal in its complete form emerges from its con- 

 cealment. Its size is scarcely superior to that of 

 the larva, but its colour is brown, with a pair of 

 broad, irregular, pale or whitish bands across the 

 upper wings. If disturbed, it nimbly springs to a 

 great distance, and is commonly known by the 

 name of the Froghopper, from some fancied resem- 

 blance to the colour and shape of that animal in 

 miniature. These insects breed during the month 

 of September, and towards the beginning of Oc- 

 tober deposit their eggs, which are not hatched 

 till the succeeding spring. 



Of similar size and shape to the preceding is 

 the Cicada sanguinolenta, but of a deep black 

 colour, with two scarlet bands across the wings, 

 the body being varied with red and black. 



Among the most singular CicadaB are those in 

 which the thorax is raised perpendicularly into a 

 large and flat leaf-like membrane or process: 

 these are of exotic extraction, and the most re- 

 markable is the Cicada rhombea of Linnaeus, which 

 is a native of Jamaica, and of a brown colour: 

 the thoracic process is of a rhomboid shape, and 

 widest at the hind part. 



