August S, 1876. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



97 



Proceeding with the second division of the Hernipterous 

 order, to which, when wo speak familiarly, we apply the 

 English name " bugs," inelegant though it be, jttst ao we call 

 the Coleoptera " beetles," its importance will be seen from the 

 mention of the aphis and its allies, which, aB I have stated, 

 occupy an unpleasantly prominent place in the order, being 

 ranked in the second great division, that of the Homoptera. 

 This word, of Greek derivation, indicates a marked peculiarity 

 in the wings. Whatever the forewing3 may be composed 

 of, they are uniform throughout, while in the Heteroptera 

 we have two different textures combined in the same pair of 

 wings. Another notable difference between the divisions lies 

 in the mouth, the Homoptereus species having it set very 

 deeply in the head, so that, as Mr. Staveley expresses it by 

 comparison, the organs of the mouth seem to spring from a 

 part which in a man would be represented by the under side of 

 the chin near the breast. There is, of course, the usual pro- 

 boscis with bristle-like mandibles. Many of the females have 

 ovipositors ; and the female aphides in their power of pro- 

 ducing fertilo insects like themselves without intervening stages 

 present us, as we shall Beo hereafter, with a curious and long 

 unsuspected anomaly in insect history. Almost all these 

 species are stout-bodied, mostly with short antennas (but a few 

 species have them very long), and the power of leaping is 

 possessed by a good proportion of the species, though they do 

 not invariably use it. Only a small section of the Homoptera 

 is vocal, the rest of the species pursuing their work in silence. 

 Also there are some luminous species, the Lantern Flies of 

 warmer climes haviDg their place here ; of that group of the 

 order we have English representatives, but not light-givers. 

 All the species are terrestrial and pacific — I am not aware of 

 one that preys upon its fellows ; and as to the transformations, 

 it is sufficient to state that the larva and pupa are not unlike 

 the imago except in size, the pnpa being active, exhibiting 

 generally the wings partially developed. Some conceal them- 

 selves with substances exuded from their bodies. 



The Homoptera break very easily into three natural groups, 

 concerning the first of which I need not say much. In thu 

 Trimera the antennas are very small, with either three or s,x 

 joints, and the tarsi or feet also possess three joints. The 

 family Cioadidas only contains a solitary and rare British 

 species, Cioada aDglica, furnished with those vocal powers 

 which have made these insects famous for ages. So deafening 

 is the sound produced by troops of the Cioadas in tropical 

 countries that they have been heard miles off, the male in- 

 sects alone, however, thus making themselves notorioue. In 

 some districts these are called " grasshoppers," in others 

 " locusts," from a notion of their destructiveness ; but we have 

 in England no representatives of the family that are injurious, 

 though there are several species with beautifully veined wings 

 which occur sometimes about meadows and woods. To the 

 next family, the Fulgoridas, I need devote little space ; it is 

 distinguished from the Cicadida? by the position of the an- 

 tennas, which are inserted below the eyes. Though we have 

 forty species or more in these islands, they rarely visit gardens 

 or make themselves obnoxious by their habits, leading a re- 

 tired life, and needing to be hunted up by the microscopist, 

 who occasionally seeks them to make an object of the beaded 

 and delicate forewiDgs. Abroad, chiefly in South Amerioa, the 

 Lantern Flies belonging to this family add brilliancy to the 

 evening landscape by a light beBide which our glow-worm 

 sparkle would be but feeble. In the Cercopidas, the third 

 family of tbe Trimera, the insects are leapers, as are those in 

 the last family, but the antennas are situate between the eyes, 

 not beneath them. The very abundant species called the 

 Froghopper, or Cuckoo-spit, is a good example of the family, 

 though it is certainly devoid of any connection with the frog 

 or the cuckoo. It may be noted, however, that the appellation 

 "Froghopper" is not incorrect, if we understand it as apply- 

 ing to the leaping habits of the perfect insect, though it is pro- 

 bable the origin was in a belief that the frog produced the 

 spume or froth in which this larva is concealed. Aphrophora 

 spumaria, the Latin name, is applicable enough to this par- 

 ticular species ; and the generic name indicates the habit pre- 

 valent amongst its brethren, for in troth we have many of 

 these Froghoppers, though A. spumaria is the oommonest. 

 The frothy substance surrounding these larvas is of course sap 

 derived from the plant on which they are feeding, yet I think 

 it is sap which has passed through the process of secretion, 

 and not just as it leaves the plant. Oftentimes after rain the 

 larvae may be seen exposed, but they make all haste to involve 

 themselves r.gain in a liquid whioh proteots them from the sun 



and also from (he attacks of enemies. As these Froghoppers 

 waste thus more than they need as nutriment (for at times the 

 froth flows down in good-sized clear drops), plants infested by 

 them must suffer a loss of vitality ; I must admit, however, 

 that naturalists have argued otherwise, believing, perhaps, 

 that bleedirig may be as good for plants as our ancestors 

 thought it was for the human body. Necessarily many gar- 

 deners do not connect the mature Froghopper— leaping; from 

 leaf to leaf with a jump said to represent aspring of lOOyards, 

 supposing a man could leap so far in proportion to his size — 

 and the frothy deposit on the buBhes in early summer. All 

 the Froghoppers have roof-like wiDgs, also a curious enlarge- 

 ment of the front joint of tho thorax, which in two or three 

 species sticks out like a kind of keel, covering the wings. 

 Ptyelus bifaseiatus is a singular individual in this family, 

 having the wings crossed by two bands, while the ground 

 colour in different specimens is of various shades between grey 

 and black. Cercopis sanguinolenta is a species with vivid 

 tints of scarlet, and a velvety appsarance in the wings oansed 

 by a crowd of minute rounded spots of black. It haunts 

 Ferns, though fortunately it is an uncommon insect. 



The second section in this subdivision of the Hemiptera is 

 called Dimera from the feet having only two joints ; the an- 

 tenna; are also longer than in the Trimera, the wings being 

 usually carried by those imagos that possess them in a roof- 

 like position. If I name the family of the Psyllidas first it is 

 not out of compliment because these insects are of any service 

 to the garden, for the case is just the rev-v.-o, but their being 

 endowed with the power of leaping; the ten- jointed an tenr as 

 and the large thorax seem to place them in advance of their 

 brethren the aphides. The two families are often confounded 

 by the ordinary observer, since the Psyllidas, though able to 

 jump, do not always exert this faculty, and in size and habit 

 the families are nearly alike, even to the possession of certain 

 species which can waft themselves along by small tufts of a 

 cottony exudation, in which at other times they find conceal- 

 ment. One or two species of the genus Psylla have been called 

 " Hoppers," and others have received the name of " Chermee," 

 quite as un-English as the appellation " Psylla," though some 

 writers think it preferable. Psylla Mali has, doubtless, been 

 frequently supposed to bs the hated " American blight," for 

 it is surrounded during its larval condition by a mass of 

 whitish threads, which may be deemed to represent in a differ- 

 ent form the saliva of the Cuckoo-spit or Froghopper, and 

 like that the cottony substance is secreted, not manufac- 

 tured, by the iosect. The specialty of these Isrvcs is tbe 

 bud of the Apple ; at times the imagos may be seen on the 

 trunks of the trees in little parties, conspicuous, though so 

 6mall, from their brilliantly white wing3 and yellow-ringed 

 bodies. The Pear also has its kindred pest in Psylla Pyri 

 similar to the Apple-haunting species, save that the body is 

 greenish. This species is discovered to make at one period the 

 young shoots tho object of its attack, at another the blossoms, 

 and it has even been discovered upon the fruit. These larvre 

 do not exude a cottony covering, apparently as a rule finding 

 protection in their numbers, nor has it been ascertained that 

 this and others of the Psyllas have bo many parasitic foes as 

 have the aphides. The gardener's most effectual modes of 

 " settling" them are, I suppose, fumigation with tobacco or 

 similar narcotics where that can be done, and washing the 

 trees infected. That beautiful plant the Camellia, source of 

 much care and trouble as well as enjoyment, has its Chermes 

 as well as its aphis and its coccus ; and Psylla Cratasgi, though 

 thus named, is a visitant to the houses where Camellias are 

 congregated together, disfiguring the plants or checking their 

 growth. Hardly a Box tree grows anywhere which has not 

 had the mark of Psylla Buxi set upon it ; in this case the 

 insect does not appear to exhaust the strength of tho shrub, 

 but it gives an ungraceful look to the ends of the twigs and 

 branches. The Rose, too, has its parasite of this family in 

 the form of an insect known as Typhlocyba Rosas, which often 

 escapes particular notice amongst the multitude of enemies 

 attacking the queen of garden flowers. 



The Psyllidas do not, I believe, produce honeydew in any 

 instance, this peculiar substance being attributable to aphides 

 only. These important insects I must defer my notice of 

 until the succeeding paper ; but as the season when honeydew 

 is principally conspicuous has recently passed over, I will here 

 make a few statements with regard to it which may serve to 

 set some gardeners thinking on the subject. Of course I do 

 not submit them as certainties, like geometrical axioms, and I 

 shall be glad to be corrected by those whose opportunities of 



