Systematic Position. 



The Cicadellidss were formerly placed in the great order 

 Hemiptera. Of late years the suborders of this order have 

 been given ordinal rank, so that to-day we speak of these in- 

 sects as belonging to the order Homoptera. This order un- 

 doubtedly stands as the highest among those insects which have 

 an incomplete metamorphosis. 



In the division of this order there seems to be a general dis- 

 position to follow Amyot and Serville in forming the two 

 groups Auchenorhynchi and Sternorhynchi, the former to in- 

 clude those families in which the beak arises clearly from the 

 posterior or lower part of the head, the latter including the 

 families where the beak seems to arise from between the pro- 

 thoracic legs. These groups may be further separated by the 

 character of the antennae and the number of tarsal joints. In 

 the former the antennae are usually awl-shaped or setaceous ; in 

 the latter they vary in form but are never bristle-like. The 

 members of the former group also always have three- jointed 

 tarsi, while the tarsi of the latter are composed of but one or 

 two segments and rarely are lacking. 



Some authorities in dividing the Hemiptera into suborders 

 make the Auchenorhynchi equal to their suborder Homoptera 

 and the Sternorhynchi to the suborder Gularostria. 



Along with the Cicadidse, Membracidse, Cercopidte, and Ful- 

 goridse, the Cicadellidas belong to the Auchenorhynchi, and it 

 is with this group that we are particularly concerned in dis- 

 cussing the systematic position of the leaf hoppers. 



It now seems to be generally believed that the Cicadidte are 

 the lowest of these five families. Comstock and Needham 

 pointed out in 1899, in a paper on the wings of insects, that 

 this family had the nearest to the primitive condition of wing 

 venation of any Hemiptera. Funkhouser does not believe that 

 the wings of the Cicadidse are as generalized as those of the 

 Membracidse, though agreeing in placing them below the latter 

 in phylogenetic rank. This is Osborn's opinion also. The fact 

 that they are the only Auchenorhynchi with three ocelli, the 



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3 Sci. Bui. 3058 



