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VI. On the Family Fulgoridae, with a Monograph of the Genus Fulgora of 

 Linnceus. By John O. Westwood, Esq., F.L.S., Sfc. 



Read November 21st, 1837. 



Amongst the insect tribes, the order Homoptera must be admitted to 

 contain the most extraordinarily formed creatures to be met with in this class 

 of beings. In some the thorax is armed with balls and spines, crescents, 

 sabres, and other mimic instruments of war : in others the same part is 

 transformed into a singularly dilated globe, concealing the rest of the body, 

 or swelled out into an enormous casket which would be far too heavy to bear 

 were it not quite hollow. In others again, the head is produced into an elon- 

 gated and swollen rostrum of the most singular construction, varying in the 

 different species, which is occasionally armed with spines or saws, and some- 

 times bent over the back. Of the use of these curious modifications it is 

 difficult to form any idea. We are not indeed to suppose that aught has been 

 made in vain ; but Avhen we find such an endless variety of form in the same 

 organ, we must be led to conclude either that the use for which it is bestowed 

 upon the creature is always modified in accordance with the modifications in 

 its structure, or that the production of so many extraordinary variations in 

 organs not having a material influence upon the habits of the animals must 

 be considered as a manifestation of Divine power ; in which point of view the 

 contemplation of such productions is not without use. 



Of these insects some of the most curious are the species of which Linnaeus 

 composed his genus Fulgora, but which has become so much augmented by 

 the addition of new species as to have been raised to the rank of a separate 

 family, named Fulgoridce by Dr. Leach and Fulgorellce by Latreille. It is 

 in the most conspicuous of these insects composing the modern restricted 

 genus Fulgora, that the head exhibits those curious modifications of form 

 already noticed, and to which an additional interest attaches from the cir- 

 cumstance of these insects having long been regarded as possessing the power 

 of emitting a strong light from the anterior produced part of the head. Such 



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