The Foamy Cicadella 



can be expelled in infinitesimal doses. Each 

 whiff sent out is thus accompanied by a trifle 

 of adhesive matter, which dissolves in the 

 water, making it sticky and enabling it to 

 retain the captive air in permanent bubbles. 

 The Cicadella covers herself with an icing of 

 which her intestine is to some extent the 

 manufacturer. 



This method brings us back to the industry 

 of the lily-dweller, the grub which makes 

 itself a loathsome armour out of its excre- 

 tions ; l but what a distance between the heap 

 of ordure which it wears on its back and the 

 Cicadella's aerated mattress ! 



Another fact, more difficult to explain, 

 attracts our attention. A multitude of low- 

 growing, herbaceous plants, whose sap starts 

 flowing in April, suit the frothy insect, 

 without distinction of species, genus or 

 family. I could almost make a list of the 

 non-ligneous vegetation of my neighbourhood 

 by cataloguing the plants on which the little 

 creature's foam is to be found in greater or 

 lesser abundance. A few experiments will 

 tell us how indifferent the Cicadella is to both 



1 The larva of the Lily-beetle (Crioceris merdigera), 

 the essay on which insect has not yet been translated into 

 English. Translator's Note. 



437 



