NOTICES OF CERTAIN PHILIPPINE FULGOROIDEA, ONE BEING 

 OF ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE 



By C. F. Baker 



{From the College of Agriculture, University of the Philippines, 

 Los Banos, P. I.) 



TWO PLATES AND 1 TEXT FIGURE 



Melichar ^ describes a new f uigorid genus, Egropa, with one 

 species, inusta, which he refers to the Tettigometridse ("Tettigo- 

 metrini"). His figures give the body outhnes and a front and 

 lateral view of the face. His species, from the description,^ 

 must have been a very beautiful object, but unfortunately he 

 possessed only a single specimen. Distant ^ inserts Egropa as 

 an unplaced genus following the Issidse. He quotes Melichar's 

 descriptions and copies his figures, remarking that he had never 

 seen the species. Considering the vast extent of the oriental 

 material studied by Distant, one might infer that this species 

 is a great rarity. However, it will doubtless be secured in 

 great numbers when its food-plant is discovered. In 1907 

 Bierman * described a second species of this interesting genus, 

 as living on Cassia fistula in Java. In the same year he figured 

 both nymphs and imagoes of this species with the name of 

 Egropa j'acobsoni.* 



It may be commonly noticed in these Islands that many of the 

 large and much-prized fruits of the guanabana (Anona muricata) 

 are deformed, are not plump and full all around, but bent and 

 depressed on one side and commonly stunted in growth. Nymphs 

 and imagoes of a species of Gargara (Membracidse) were to be 

 found occasionally on this tree, and the Gargara was suspected 

 of being the cause of this common damage. Only now, after 

 being here three years, do I discover it to be due to a beautiful 

 species of Hilda {=Egropa) , which evanescently breeds in great 

 numbers on the surface of the very young fruits. It lays very 

 numerous eggs in patches on the surface of the fruit and on 

 surrounding leaves. This year it happens that large numbers 

 of these eggs are parasitized by a minute chalcid,^ so that it is 



'Homopteren Fauna von Ceylon (1903), 82, Taf. Ill, fig. 13, a. 

 'Fauna Brit. Ind. Rhynch. (1906), 3, 268. 

 'Ent. Bericht. (1907), 2, 162. 



'Notes Leyden Mus. (1907), 29, 158, Taf. Ill, fig. 6. 

 ^ Being described under the name Pseudobrachysticha semiaurea Girault 

 gen. et. spec. nov. 



132633 4 137 



