134 Mr. Westwood on the Family Fulgoridse. 



opinion, however, originating in an account given by Madame Merian of the 

 Fulgora Laternaria, appears at the present time to be regarded as fabulous, no 

 other traveller of any authority or credit having since observed the least traces 

 of luminosity, although the insect is by no means rare in South America. The 

 reader will find an amusing fictitious discussion upon this subject in the third 

 volume of the Entomological Magazine, wherein the contrary opinion appears 

 to prevail ; M. Lacordaire, M. Richard, Dr. Hancock, Dr. Burmeister and 

 M. Gu^rin, however are in favour of the non-luminosity of these insects, 

 which was also personally confirmed to me by the late lamented Prince Maxi- 

 milian of Neuwied *. 



In the original separation of this group of insects from the great division 

 composing the Linneean genus Cicada, Linnaeus appears to have had in view 

 chiefly the form of the head, his characters being " Caput fronte producta, 

 inani. Antennae infra oculos : articulis 2 ; exteriore globoso majore. Rostrum 

 inflexum. Pedes gressorii." {Syst. Nat. 2, 703.) Nine species were described 

 by Linnaeus, all of which are subsequently noticed in this memoir. Fabricius 

 in like manner evidently regarded the structure of the head as of primary 

 importance, since, although his characters are simply " os rostro elongato ; 

 vagina 4-articulata, antennae breves, capitatae," we find in his detailed de- 

 scription the character " Capitis fronte porrecta, elongata, adscendente, cylin- 

 drica, retusa." And amongst the species introduced by him into the genus, we 

 accordingly find species which agree with the true Fulgoroe in no other cha- 

 racter than that of the form of the head, belonging in fact to a distinct family 

 as subsequently noticed. By Fabricius also and by Latreille other genera 

 were established ; being chiefly separated from the Linnaean Cicadce, but 

 having in the majority of their structural characters a nearer relation with 

 Fulgora. The chief of these were Flata, Lystra, Derbe, Delphax, and Isstis by 

 Fabricius, and Poeciloptera, Cixlus, and Asiraca by Latreille. All these 

 genera were united together into a separate family by Latreille under the 

 name of Fulgorella;, changed by Dr. Leach to Fulgoridce, and from time to 

 time others have been added by more recent authors, as Germar, Guerin, 

 Laporte, Burmeister, Kirby, &c. 



* M. Wesmael has recently communicated to the Academy of Brussels, a reassertion of the lumi- 

 nous powers in F. Laternaria, on the authority of a friend who had witnessed an insect alive in South 

 America (Ann. Soc. Ent. de France, 1837, p. Ixvii.). 



