96 Indian Museum Notes. £ y^ Jj t 



Phromniamarginella} In the Asiatic Researches, (Volume 14, p. 182, 

 published in Calcutta in the year 1822, Major-General T. Hardwick 

 describes and figures an insect under the name of Chermis mannifer, 2 

 which is probably identical with Phromnia marginella, Oliv. But by far 

 the best account of the insect is given by Captain T. Hutton in the 

 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, vol. xii, p. 898, Calcutta, 1 843, 

 where the name attributed to the species is Flata limbata. 



The insect was found by Captain Hutton on the lower slopes of the 

 Mussoorie Hills in the North-West Provinces, the sugary secretion 

 being only obtainable throughout the dry weather from January to June, 

 as it gets washed away by the first heavy rain that falls upon it. 

 According to Captain Hutton the eggs hatch in December, and the 

 larvae cluster like sheep upon the food plant. They feed by sucking up 

 the juices of the leaves, and moult several times, gradually increasing in 

 size until the setting in of the rainy season in June, when winged 

 imagos begin to emerge. In the imago the front wings are grass green, 

 with anterior margins red, the posterior wings are milk white, the body 

 is greenish, and the abdomen is generally covered up with white floccu- 

 leiit matter similar to what is found upon the larva?. The eggs are laid 

 in considerable numbers in the bark of the twigs, a slight swelling of 

 the wood often taking place where the eggs have been laid. The imagos 



1 In his Fwtomologia systematica published in the year 1794, Fabricius notices that 

 his Cicada limbata from South Africa is identical with'Stoll's species from Ceylon. There 

 would seem, however, to he some doubt upon this point owing to the geographical position 

 of the two localities. The references to Cicada limbata are as follows : — 



Cicada limbata, Fabr., Sp. Ins. ii, p. 322, No. 3 (1781). 



„ „ Ent. Syst. iv, p. 27, No. 3 (!794). 



Flata limbata, Fabr. Syst. Rhyn., p. 46, No. 6 (1803). 

 Jn the British Museum Catalogue of Homoptera, published in 1851, further confusion 

 has arisen between Phromnia marginella and Flata nigricornis. The latter is a species 

 which differs very markedly from Phromnia marginella in having the forewing brown with 

 black dots along the posterior margin, instead of its being bright green with anterior 

 margin red, as in P. marginella. As far as has been made out, the references to Flata 

 nigricornis are as follows, though the diversity in the localities from which it is recorded, 

 are so remarkable as to seem to point to some confusion in identification : — 

 Flata nigricornis, Fabr., Syst. Rhyng., p. 45, No. 1, 1803, America. 



„ „ Donov. Ins. China, p. 40, pi. 17, 1842, China. 



Cigale portelaine, Stoll., Cigales, p. 101, pi. 26, fig. 145, 1788, Africa. 

 Fulgora pallida, Oliv., Encyolop. Meth. Ins. vi, p. 575, No. 42, 1791, Africa. 



2 This insect was found upon a species of Celastrus in the neighbourhood of Pachmaii 

 and is referred to by Blanchard (Bull. Soc. Zool. de France, 1883, p. 277) as synonymous 

 with the Scale insect Coccus manniparus described by Ehrenberg (Hemprieh and Ehrenberg's 

 Symbolee physicce, vol. iii, pi. x, 1829) as responsible for the sugary secretion which is 

 collected at the present day by the Arabs from the Tamarix gallica plant in Sinai, aud 

 which is supposed to be identical with the manna eaten by' the children of Israel in the 

 wilderness. A comparison however of the figures given by Ehrenberg and Hardwick 

 shows clearly that the insects they respectively describe are totally' distinct from each 

 other. 



