THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 49 



being shown on the beautiful plate drawn at my request by Mr. 

 C. C. Brittlebank, of this Club, and which will be reproduced 

 in part iii. of " The Destructive Insects of Victoria." The 

 punctures are very close together, so that the tree is perfectly 

 riddled with holes, the apertures after the eggs have been 

 deposited being closed with a white flocculent matter, 



Mr. Buckton also remarks that other kinds of Tettigiidse (which 

 I may remark are closely allied to the Cicadse) are known to ruin 

 sugar-canes in parts of India and other tropical countries. It 

 would appear that this is no new pest, as many old orchardists 

 have years ago noticed the punctures on the trees, but up till the 

 present time the culprit had not been discovered. Unluckily it 

 has been ascertained that the natural home of this insect is in the 

 wood of young Eucalypti, so that its exact range cannot well be 

 estimated. It is a truly pitiable sight to see a once fine orchard 

 nearly ruined by such a comparatively insignificant insect, this 

 being another example of an indigenous insect having abandoned 

 its natural food for the more palatable fruits of our orchards, I 

 have counselled severe pruning when the tree is dormant, the 

 prunings to be immediately burned, and, having done this, a 

 thorough painting of the stem and larger branches with lime, 

 sulphur, and soft-soap mixed ; the smaller branches to be sprayed 

 with kerosene emulsion and resin compound put on the trees 

 whilst hot. So far we have found no indication of this pest having 

 attacked the roots, but as this group are, in certain stages, below 

 the ground, it may happen that the roots will be attacked also. 



Description. 

 Prosops pedisequus, Buckton, n. g. 



This insect is clearly one of the Cixiidae, but it does not answer 

 to the generic description given by FielDer in his "Cicadines 

 d'Europe." It has the mixed characters of Cixius proper and of 

 Oliarus. It differs from the first in having five pronotal keels and 

 a different elytral neuration, and from the second in having small 

 setigerous bulbs on the principle veins, and a clouded staining of 

 the membranes. From both genera it differs in the peculiar form 

 of the tumid front with its transverse keel. 



If we are to keep to Fieber's diagnosis of the above genera the 

 erection of a new genus seems to be inevitable. Thus I propose 

 for this insect, hitherto undescribed, the name Prosops pedisequus^ 

 and I describe the genus thus : — 



Genus— Prosops. 



Head distinctly narrower than the pronotum. Clypeus sharply 

 divided by a longitudinal keel and one short transverse carina. 

 Eyes large. Two conspicuous tubercular marks on the under side 

 of the seats of the antennae. Pronotum with fine carinse. Elytron 



