THE LANTEEN FLIES. 113 



secretion is produced by the larvse as well as the perfect insects. That of a Chinese species 

 (Plata limbata) is collected for sale, and known in commerce as " Chinese white wax." 



The processes of the head in the typical Fulgoridse are often of considerable size, and, according 

 to the older writers, had the power of diffusing a considerable amount of light from their extremity, 

 whence the insects are commonly known as " Lantern Flies." The Great Lantern Fly (Fulgora 

 latsrnaria), a native of Surinam, Brazil, and other parts of the South American Continent, attains 

 a length of nearly three inches, and its wings spread nearly twice that distance. Its head-process, 

 or lantern, is about an inch long, stout, and much inflated, with two large humps on the upper 

 surface. The general colour is yellowish-brown, but each hind wing has a large, orange-yellow, 

 ocellated spot, bordered with dark brown, and enclosing two bluish pupils. It is this insect, 

 especially, that has been described as luminous; but the researches of modern travellers, if they 



CHEAT LANTERN FLY. 



have not altogether disproved its possession of this property, have, at least, rendered it exceedingly 

 doubtful. The Chinese Lantern Fly (Fulgora candelaria), a very common insect in all Chinese boxes, 

 is shown in our Plate 63, B. It has a red body, greenish fore wings with yellow spots, and orange 

 hind wings with black tips. Many other forms of these flies, with or without head-processes, are 

 found throughout the tropics. 



The European and British species are all of small size, and generally of dull colours. They are 

 found upon trees, shrubs, and herbage. Cixiits nervosus, an insect rather more than a quarter of an 

 inch long, is black, with yellow legs, and transparent fore wings, in which the veins are dotted with 

 brown, and there are two transverse brown bands. It is found chiefly on alders. The species of the 

 allied genus Delphax occur principally on herbage ; in Asiraca (A. clavicornis) the antennae are 

 elongated, nearly half as long as the body ; and in Issus (I. coleoptratus), the ocelli are indistinct, and 

 the fore wings are leathery and humped, like a pair of convex elytra. 



FAMILY XV. MEMBRACID^E. 



If in the Fulgoridae the head occasionally, as we have seen, takes on a fantastic shape, in the 

 Membracidse the prothorax fairly astonishes us by the extraordinary forms which it assumes. It is 

 enlarged and produced into processes of the most varied kinds, and very frequently has a posterior 

 part which wholly or partially covers the abdomen and wings. The head is bent down, furnished 

 with two ocelli, and with a pair of very short antennae, but the crown of the head is not separated 

 in any way from the forehead. The wings are generally membranous. The species of this very 

 remarkable family, which includes some of the most bizarre of insects, are chiefly inhabitants of 

 253 



