THE TREE-HOPPERS 



(Family Membracidiv.) 



These insects comprise some of the most grotesque species 

 which nature has evolved. Comstock offers the apt suggestion 

 that " Nature must have been in a joking mood when tree-hop- 

 pers were developed." The antennae are inserted in front of and 



Fig. 130. — Ceresa taurina. (After Marlatt) 



between the eyes and the prothorax is prolonged so that it fre- 

 quently covers the rest of the body. It is by the curious modifica- 

 tions of this prothorax that the strange, and grotesque forms of 

 the insects are produced. The majority of these modifications 



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