56 



the preceding group ; but several families, notably Aphid^; and 

 CocciDiE, nave been unavoidably neglected as far as collecting is 

 concerned. 



Tbe Cicada furnish eleven species, of which the largest 

 known to me measures several inches in span, is prettily 

 coloured in yellow and brown, and feeds upon Casuarina and 

 Acacia pygnantha. The next in size is nearly black, feeds upon 

 Eucalyptus rostrata and E. viminalis, and. is common about 

 Adelaide. A third very large species habited in green tints 

 lives about Mount Grambier upon Acacia obliqua. A much smaller 

 species is peculiar to the mallee, another with spotted wing to 

 banksias, and a number of smaller ones to various grasses. 

 They are the principal musicians of the Australian forests, but 

 their strains are more loud than pleasant. The Fulgoridm 

 muster seven genera, with 93 species. The typical genus 

 Fulgora furnishes only two species, both very rare. Cercoptis, 

 only one, but numerous, the larvae of which produce the so- 

 called " cuckoo spittle." Two genera not mentioned in Rente's 

 " Zoology " are in so far remarkable that the one presents the 

 extreme of lateral, the other of vertical compression. Eight 

 species have been observed, all of which are vegetarians, and 

 their larvae in many instances exude a sweet liquid, much in 

 request among ants, which lick the same and never hurt either 

 the larvae or the adults. Several species of Aphidee have been 

 observed upon divers native plants, besides the introduced Rose 

 Aphis. One species feeding among the roots of the wheat-plants 

 attacked by a Ftisidium (the so-called "take-all"), has been 

 described and figured by Dr. C. Muecke, MA. ; and is in some 

 seasons exceedingly numerous, flying at night towards the 

 light, and adhering in great numbers to the lamps. Another 

 much larger species was observed by me on the roots of some 

 sickly young plants of Eucalyptus globulus ; it is snow-white, 

 and forms protuberances around the rootlets. A large and 

 beautiful species of Coccus occurs in the scrub near Lyndoch 

 and Nuriootpa, and also at Mount Gambier, where it was fairly 

 numerous among the ferns. The female is from one-fourth to 

 more than half an inch in length, exhibiting the usual charac- 

 teristics of the family, and its body is filled with a bright red 

 fluid. It attaches itself to a twig of Santalum or other shrub, 

 inserts its proboscis, and never leaves its place again. The 

 male is much less in size, but gifted with two large glassy 

 wings twice the length of the body, and a tail formed of 

 numerous snow-white silky hairs, giving to the insect when 

 slowly flitting in nearly straight course through the shrubs the 

 exact appearance of a tiny comet, suggesting as most suitable 

 appellation the name of Coccus cometarius. 



