540 THE CUCKOO-SPIT, OR FROG-HOPPER 



The slits made by these curious saws are wonderfully deep considering the instruments 

 with which they are cut, and look as if little splinters of wood had been partially 

 detached by a penknife, but left adherent at one end. Each of the burrows under these 

 elevations is about a third of an inch in length, and contains from four to ten eggs. 

 Altogether, each female deposits between six and seven hundred eggs. As soon as 

 the young are hatched, they emerge from the cell, and make their way to the ground 

 At this period of their existence they are not unlike the common flea, both in size and 

 shape. They grow rapidly, and whon they are changed to the pupal form exhibit but 

 little alteration in form, except that the rudimentary wings are visible externally. They 

 live for some time in the preliminary stages, and guard themselves against the frosts of 

 winter by burrowing into the ground to a depth of nearly a yard. When the perfect 

 insect makes its escape, it leaves the empty pupal shell nearly entire, except a slit along 

 the back through which the creature has passed. 



The male Cicada has the power of producing a shrill and ear-piercing sound, so loud 

 in many species that it can be heard at a considerable distance, and becomes a positive 

 annoyance, like the same tune played for several hours without intermission. The organ 

 by which the sound is produced is internal, but its position may be seen externally by 

 looking at the under side of the body, just behind the last pair of legs, where a pair of 

 horny plates may be seen. These plates are the protecting covers of the sound-producing 

 apparatus, which consists of two drum-like membranes and a set of powerful muscles. 

 The colour of the perfect insect is mostly of a yellowish cast, and the wings are firm, 

 shining, and membranous, somewhat resembling those of the dragon-fly in texture, but 

 having larger cells or spaces between the nervures. 



One species of Cicada is a native of England ( Cicada Anglica), and is to be found in 

 the New Forest. Generally, however, the Cicadse are tropical insects, or, at all events, 

 inhabit the warm countries, those in the cooler p^rts of the world being comparatively 

 small. Several species of Cicada are eaten like the locusts. 



THE wonderful LANTERN-FLIES are known by the three-jointed antennae and the two 

 ocelli beneath the eyes. 



It may here be remarked that the eyes of insects are of twofold character, namely, the 

 compound and the simple, the former being constructed of a variable number of facets, so 

 arranged that each, though a separate eye, with its own optic nerve, is made to coincide 

 with the others, and to produce a single image in the sensorium. Many insects, 

 especially those which fly or run rapidly, have a vast number of facets in the compound 

 eye, the common peacock butterfly possessing about thirty-four thousand of these lenses, 

 seventeen thousand on each side. The average number, however, is about six or eight 

 thousand. The ocelli, or simple eyes, are round, lens-like objects, mostly set in front of 

 the head; and it is imagined that the two sets of eyes perform distinct offices, the 

 compound eyes for the purpose of observing distant objects, and the ocelli in order to 

 examine the food or any substance within close proximity. 



In many of the Fulgoridte, the head is formed into the oddest imaginable shapes, 

 sometimes lengthened into a curved horn, like that of the Lantern-fly, sometimes broad, 

 with a deep keel above, and sometimes with a raised edge of knife-like sharpness. 

 The head is said to emit a phosphorescent light, similar to that of the fire-flies. 



The Wax Insects belong to this family. These creatures are plentiful in China, where 

 the waxen secretion is manufactured into many useful articles, and is equal, if not 

 superior, to that obtained from the bee. That this creature should produce wax is 

 thought to be very marvellous, but there is no reason to consider the fact more wonderful 

 than that the bee should secrete a similar substance. There is this difference, that the 

 bee produces the wax from six little pockets arranged along the abdomen, whereas the 

 Fulgora pours it from various parts of the body, just as the oil is emitted by the meloe- 

 beetle already described. 



THE Cercopidae, or Hoppers, are well known in this country, mostly from the habits of 

 the larva, and the saltatorial powers of the perfect insect. The CUCKOO-SPIT, or FROG- 

 HOPPER, is very plentiful in this country, and is often a great annoyance to amateur 



