152 Forty-fifth Report on tee /State Museum. 



Clastoptera obtusa (Say). 



The Obtuse Clastoptera. 



(Order Hemiptera: Subord. Homoptera: Fam. Cercopidje.) 



Say: Descr. New Hemip. Ins. in Exp. Rocky Mts., Journ. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila. 



iv, 1825, p. 339; Compl. Writings, ii, 1886, p. 256 (as Cercopis). 

 Fitch: in 4th Ann. Rept. [N. Y.] St. Cab. N. H. , 1851, p. fi3 (? C achatina Germ.); 



in Trans. N. Y. Agr. Soc. for 1856, xvi, p. 466; 3d Rept. Ins. N. Y. (in 



3d-5th Repts.), 1859, p. 148, no. 192 (characterized). 

 Glover: in Rept. Commis. Agricul. for 1876. 1877, p. 31, f. 29 (brief notice). 

 Uhler: in Cassino's Stand. Nat. Hist., ii, 1884, p. 244 (its features). 

 Comstock: Introduc. Entomol., 1888, p. 178 (from Uhler). 

 Provancher: Pet. Faun. Ent. Can.— Hemipt., 1889, p. 259 (description). 

 Lintner: 5th Rept. Ins. N. Y., 1889, p. [100] 242 ; in 42d Rept. St. Mus., 1889, 



pp. 242-246 (general notice). 

 Packard: Bull. No. 7, U. S. Ent. Commit, 1881, p. 88 (quotes Fitch); 5th Rept. 



U. S. Ent. Comm., 1890, p. 342 (on butternut). 

 Van Duzee: in Canad. Entomol., xxi, 1889, p. 8 (on blueberry in Canada). 

 Osborn: in Proc. Iowa Acad. Sci., i, lsi*2, p. 127 (in Iowa). 

 Southwick: in Science, xix, 1892, p. 318 (mention). 



The Insect on Linden. 



Leaves of the linden tree, Tilia Americana, were received June 22d, 

 1891, from Mr. D. J. Garth, of Scarsdale, N. Y., having on their stems 

 large masses of the "cuckoo-spit," from which the small ivory-white 

 larvsB which had produced it, had crept out and were actively traveling- 

 over the leaves and the box in which they were inclosed. Mr. Garth 

 wrote : 



I have a large Linden growing on my lawn, which has on the stems 

 of the leaves where they join the branches, a substance that looks like 

 the white of an egg beaten to a froth, and small insects within it like 

 those that I send you for examination and report. I have never seen 

 this before, and as it appears to cover the entire tree, I fear that damage 

 may result from it. 



Its Habits and Injuries. 



Mr. Garth was informed that the examples sent were the larvre of one 

 of the tree-hoppers, or "spittle insects" as commonly known, which 

 feed on the juices of the trees that they infest, sometimes injuriously, 

 and that the froth-like substance in which they were hidden, was a pro- 

 tective excretion from them, thrown out after the manner, and for the 

 purpose stated in the Fifth Report Insects JVeio York, 1880, in the 

 account of the "Alder Spittle-Insect," p. 242. As they wore apparently 

 nearly full-grovn, and, probably, not excessively abundant, the injury 

 that they would inflict upon the tree through sucking its sap, would 

 not be sufficiently severe to render necessary a resort to means for their 

 destruction. 



