Tree-Hoppers. 165 



as he tells us, lie had never had the pleasure of seeing one of 

 them aljve, the most interesting parts of their structure can 

 be studied as well in dead as in living specimens. We our- 

 selves possess several specimens from New Holland, upon 

 which we have verified some of the more interesting observa- 

 tions of Reaumur. 



Virgil tells us that in his time "the cicadas burst the 

 very shrubs with their querulous music ;"* but we may well 

 suppose that he was altogether unacquainted with the singular 

 instrument by means of which they can, not poetically, but 

 actually, cut grooves in the branches they select for deposit- 

 ing their eggs. It is the male, as in the case of birds, which 

 fills the woods with his song ; while the female, though mute, 

 is no less interesting to the naturalist on account of her 

 curious ovipositor. This instrument, like all those with 

 which insects are furnished by nature for cutting, notching, 

 or piercing, is composed of a horny substance, and is also 

 considerably larger than the size of the tree-hopper would 

 proportionally indicate. It can on this account be partially 

 examined without a microscope, being, in some of the larger 

 species, no less than five linesf in length. 



The ovipositor, or auger (tariere\ as Reaumur calls it, is 

 lodged in a sheath which lies in a groove of the terminating 

 ring of the belly. It requires only a very slight pressure to 

 cause the instrument to protrude from its sheath, when it 

 appears to the naked eye to be of equal thickness throughout, 

 except at the point, where it is somewhat enlarged and 

 angular, and on both sides finely indented with teeth. A 

 more minute examination of the sheath demonstrates that it 

 is composed of two horny pieces slightly curved, and ending 

 in the form of an elongated spoon, the concave part of which 

 is adapted to receive the convex end of the ovipositor. 



When the protruded instrument is further examined with 

 a microscope, the denticulations, nine in number on each side, 

 appear strong, and arranged with great symmetry, increasing 

 in fineness towards the point, where there are three or four 



* " Cantu qaerulae rumpent arbusta cicada." Georg. iii. 328 

 t A line is about the twelfth part of an inch. 



