OF THE ANNULOSA. 375 



sess a peculiarity by which Latreille thought proper to 

 distinguish the Lepidoptera. Yet any person the least 

 versed in Entomology will at once put an end to this re- 

 search, by replying that certain Homopterous insects cor- 

 respond with the description proposed. It is true that the 

 shape of the head, the position of the eyes, the indistinct- 

 ness of the antennse, and the presence of ocelli, all se- 

 parate what may be considered the type of an Homopte- 

 rous insect from the Lepidoptera: instead of the triangur 

 lar dilated forehead, by which the true CicadcE are distin- 

 guished, we require one that shall be destitute of ocelli, 

 truncated in front and contracted at the sides ; instead of 

 the minute antennse, we require them to be remarkably 

 developed. It happens then that such an insect is found 

 at Sierra Leone, and is described by Fabricius under the • 

 name of Flat a limbata. It is indeed so singular an ex- 

 ample of the commencement of a relation of affinity be- 

 tween the Lepidoptera and Homoptera, and so distinct 

 withal from its present congeners, as to excite our sur- 

 prise that so little attention should have been paid to it. 



But in truth the whole genus Plata, as it exists at pre- 

 sent, bears manifestly a distant affinity to certain extreme 

 Lepidoptera, which must be apparent not only from its 

 having been connected by Linnjeus and Fabricius with 

 such trivial names as Phaltsnoides, but from the admission 

 of Latreille himself. " Les Fulgores dont la tete 7i'a point 

 d'avancement remarquable composent dans Fabricius divers 

 genres. Ses Flutes ant les elytres et les ailes trh larges, 

 et ressemblent a de petifes phalhies, on mieux encore a des 

 pi/rales." The immediate means of transition from Ho- 

 mopterous insects to the Lepidopterous, — in other words, 

 the osculant order, — is exemplified probably in the genus 



