THE LEAF-HOPPERS. 



autumn. The following summer they are hatched, and the 

 young immediately perforate the bark with their beaks, and 

 begin to imbibe the sap. They take in such quantities of 

 this, that it oozes out of their bodies continually, in the form 

 of little bubbles, which soon completely cover up the insects. 

 They thus remain entirely buried and concealed in large 

 masses of foam, until they have completed their final trans- 

 formation, on which account the names of cuckoo-spittle, 

 frog-spittle, and frog-hoppers have been applied to them. 

 We have several species of these frog-hoppers in Massachu- 

 setts, and the spittle, with which they are sheltered from the 

 sun and air, may be seen in great abundance, during the 

 summer, on the stems of our alders and willows. In the 

 perfect state they are not thus protected, but are found on 

 the plants, in the latter part of summer, fully grown and 

 preparing to lay their eggs. In this state they possess the 

 power of leaping in a still more remarkable degree than the 

 tree-hoppers ; and, for this purpose, the tips of their hind 

 shanks are surrounded with little spines, and the first two 

 joints of their feet have a similar coronet of spines at their 

 extremities. Their thorax narrows a little behind, and 

 projects somewhat between the bases of the wing-covers ; 

 their bodies are rather short, and their wing-covers are al- 

 most horizontal and quite broad across the middle, which, 

 with the shortness of their legs, gives them a squat appear- 

 ance.* 



The leaf-hoppers (TETTIGOXIADJB) leap almost as well as 

 the spittle-insects just mentioned ; but their hind legs are 

 longer, are not surrounded with coronets of short spines, but 

 are three-sided, and generally fringed on two of their edges 



* The following species are found in Massachusetts, namely: Cercopis ignipecta 

 of my Catalogue, and the paralltln, qundrnnffuluris, and obtuga, of Say. The last 

 three belong to Germar's genus Aphrophora,^ which means spume-bearer. Cercopis, 

 which may be translated impostor, was applied by the Greeks to a small Cicada. 



t [Clastoptera protevt, an insect of this class which does great injury to the cran- 

 berry crop in some parts of Massachusetts, but of whose habits very little has 

 been ascertained, is figured on Plate III. Fig. 6. ED ] 

 29 



