240 



FoRTi'-FiRST Report on the State Museuii. 



wasliiug soda, made by dissolving half a pound or more in a pailful 

 of water. 



Painting tlie twigs and branches with linseed oil has also been 

 recommended and claimed to be harmless to the tree, and effectual 

 for the destruction of the eggs beneath the scales ; but we would not 

 commend a resort to this heroic method until experiment shall show 

 the season and the condition of the tree when it may be employed 

 without fear of a harmful result. 



Ptyelus lineatus (Linnseus). 



The Lined Spittle-hopper. 



(Ord. Hemipteba: Subord. Homopteba.: Fam. Cebcopidj5.) 



Cicada lineata Linn. : Faun. Suec, 1761, p. 888 ; Syst. Nat., 1767, pt. ii, p. 709, 



No. 31. 

 Cercopis lineata Fabb. : Spec. Ins., ii, 1781, p. 330, 8; Mant. Ins., ii, 1787, 



p. 274, 13. 

 Ptyelus lineatus Uhleb: in Cassino's Stand. Nat. Hist., ii, 1884, p. 243. 

 Ptyelus lineatus. Packard : Entomol. for Beginn., 1888, p. 82, flg. 69. 



The Insect abounds on Grass. 

 The pupae of this insect were sent, June twenty-iirst, from Mr. 

 Brooks Strait, of West Stockholm, St. Lawrence Co., New York, with 

 the statement that they were found on the grass of meadows and 

 pastures, and that " this part of the county was filled with them." 

 They were causing considerable anxiety, and many farmers desired to 

 know the amount of harm that they would inflict, and what remedies, if 

 any were needed, might be employed against them. 



Answer was made that it was a Hemipterous insect (order embrac- 

 ing the bugs), of the family of Ger- 

 copidce, and that it belonged to the 

 group of " spittle-insects," in which 

 j the larvae and pupa?, living on the sap 

 of their food-plants, envelop and en- 

 tirely conceal themselves within a 

 mass of frothy material, sometimes 

 called toad's spittle or frog spittle. 

 The liquid is given out by the insect" 

 in quantity so large that i:)ortions of 



Fig. d9.- Spittle-insect, Ptyelus LiNEA- it break away from the mass from 

 Tus; enlarged: a, larva enlarged; &, its ,. ... in , ,i t 



natural size on grass with froth-mass or ^^e to time, and drop to the ground. 

 " spittle." The group is a large one, embracing 



many species of the genera of Aphrophora, Lepyronia, Clastopiera, Ptyelus, 



