558 CICADA. 
who employ that term in a strangely wide sense; the Cicade, with their 
beautiful niembranous wings, their large heads, and their loud voices; the 
tribe of Hoppers, of which the Cuckoo-spit Insect, known in its perfect state 
under the name of Frog-hopper, and the beautiful Scarlet Hopper, are 
familiar British examples ; the wonderful Lantern-flies, also leapers, which 
are found only in hot climates; the Wax Insects of China; and lastly, the 
Scale Insects, or Coccidz, trom which the “lac” so important in commerce 
is obtained. 
The Cicadee have three joints to their feet, these members affording useful 
characteristics in settling the precise position of the various species. They are 
very large insects, sometimes measuring more than six inches between the 
Peciloptera circulata. Cicada flosfolia. 
tips of the expanded wings. Their mouth or beak is three-jointed, and verv 
long, being tucked under the body when not required. The females are 
furnished with a curious apparatus, by which they are enabled to cut grooves 
in the branches of trees for the purpose of depositing their eggs therein. 
The male Cicada has the power of producing a shrill and ear-piercing 
sound, so loud in many species that it can be heard at a considerable distance, 
and becomes a positive annovance, like the same tune played for several 
hours without intermission. The organ by which the sound is produced is 
internal, but its position may be seen externally by looking at the under side 
of the body, just behind the last pair of legs, where a pair of horny plates 
may be seen. These plates are the protecting covers of the sound-producing 
apparatus, which consists of two drum-like membranes and a set of powerful 
muscles. The colour of the perfect insect is mostly of a yellowish cast, 
and the wings are firm, shining, and membranous, somewhat resembling 
those of the dragon-fly in texture, but having larger cells or spaces between 
the nervures, 
