6oo 



INSECTA SUB-ORDER HOMOPTERA. 



Fig. Q2.Flata circulatd. Nat. size. 



with yellow, and the hind-wings are yellow, bordered with brown. There is a 

 long and somewhat recurved horn on the head. Other species of this family 

 are varied with blue or red, and the horns are of different colours and shapes ; 

 yellow or green, and pointed ; dentated ; white, with a red knob at the ex- 

 tremity ; rather short, and trifid at the end, etc. Most of the species are 

 East Indian or South American ; a few are African. 



The Lystrince, are also tropical species of considerable size and bright 

 colours, but the excrescence on the head is absent. They are chiefly, but not 

 exclusively, South American. 



The Flatince are another extensive tropical group, in which the tegmina 

 are bordered more or less broadly with a row of oblique or transverse nervures. 

 They generally measure from one to two inches in expanse. The tegmina 



are frequently green, some- 

 times prettily spotted with 

 red, and are oval or angula- 

 ted at the tips, and not m uch 

 longer than the wings, which 

 are generally light brown, 

 grey, or white, and sub-hya- 

 line. The species figured, 

 Flata circulata (Guerin), is 

 pale grey, with black mark- 

 ings. It is a native of Java. 

 Most of the European Fnl- 

 goridce are small insects. The 

 Delphacince, which measure 



about one-sixth of an inch in length, have comparatively long antennae, with 

 the joints much thickened, and the last ending in a bristle. The hind-legs 

 are very long, and strongly spined at the end of the tibiae ; they are generally 

 of a yellow colour. The head is broad, and the face more or less keeled. 

 They are generally found on grass in damp places, and many species are 

 dimorphic, exhibiting both winged and subapterous forms. 



The Derbince are a small exotic sub-family, with very short, oval bodies, 

 comparatively long antennas, unarmed legs, and long narrow wings, an inch 

 in expanse, and shaped more like those of a Tipula or a Pterophorus than 

 those of other homopterous insects. 



In the Cercopidce, the antennse are placed between the eyes, just under the 

 vertex ; the scutellum is rather small, and the hind tibiae are usually armed 

 with from one to three spines, and a crown of stronger ones at their extremity. 

 This family includes the true frog-hoppers, the most conspicuous species 

 of which is Triecphora vulnerata (Illiger), which is not unlike a small beetle 

 in appearance. It is black, and measures about three-quarters of an 

 inch across the long, oval, horny tegmina, which are 

 black, with bright red markings ; the wings are sub- 

 hyaline. It is not uncommon in England. Aphrophora 

 alni (Fall.) is about the same size, but is dull yellow, 

 with brown markings on the elytra, which are broader 

 than in Triecphora vulnerata, and more pointed at. the 

 tips ; the hind- wings are also broader and more rounded 

 than in the latter insect. Its soft yellow larva is very 

 commo.n on grass, etc., and is always surrounded by a 

 mass of froth, called popularly "cuckoo-spit." 



Fig. 93 Triecphora 

 vulnerata. Nat. size. 



