608 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL BIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXI. 



sion for expansion seems to be to allow the egg, after being laid in 

 tlie slit in the leaf, to expand sideways into the cavity and thus take 

 up less space in the slight thickness of the leaf : besides allowing the 

 cut edges of the slit to close upon and protect the egg (f, fig. 1). 



The nymphs are broad and flat and, except for the growth of 

 the wings, very similar in all instars ; they are chiefly of a dull 

 Avhite. Their powers of jumping are highly-developed and they 

 can spring great distances, even when recently hatched. The 

 nymphs usuallj^ feed on the underside of fresh leaves, or on the 

 stems of new shoots. Those of both Geisha and Salurnis emit a 

 white, waxy material in great quantity ; but whilst the nymph 

 of the larger species lives almost covered by the white, flocculent 

 material, the nymph of ^S*. marc/inellus extrudes most of the matter 

 in two long streamers from the anal segment. Some of this 

 white substance instantly dissolves in spirit and melts with heat, 

 and is of a waxy nature, but a large part consists of hollow 

 filaments or hairs, much broken and interlaced, insoluble in either 

 spirit or potash ; apparently much resembling in chemical nature 

 the wax-hairs which project from the anal segments of certain 

 leaf-hopper nymphs. 



In the nymph of Geisha there are ten small circular wax -pits or 

 fields (wp, fig. 2), five on either side of the seventh abdominal 

 segment, showing yellowish when the wax is removed. Only 

 three of these wax-pits appear on each side in fig. 2, the others 

 being below but in the same line. If, whilst the nymph is living, 

 the wax is brushed away from these pits, the wax-spicules are seen 

 forming again immediately, and enough is soon emitted to again 

 more or less cover the insect (f, fig. 3). But there are much 

 larger wax-fields on the end of the abdomen in both species, as 

 shown at w. f. fig. 2., which represents a nymph of Geisha after 

 the fourth moult. The cuticle of these wax-pits and fields is 

 curiously fretted and pierced for the innumerable tiny unicellular 

 wax-glands (fig. 3). These glands are modified and enlarged 

 hypodermis cells ; secreting the wax through the fretted areas of 

 the cuticle (a and b fig. 3, from nymph of Australian species). In 

 some species of Flata this fretting is rather rough and simple ; in 

 some it is highly ornate and intricate : most species have at least 



