Studies in North American 

 Membracidae. 



By Edward P. Van Duzee 



In the present paper I give the results of a systematic 

 study of all the Membracids in my own collection and of such 

 additional material as I could procure from my correspondents. 

 With this material I have been able to recognize a consid- 

 erable portion of the species published by Say, Fitch and 

 Emmons and most of those of the more recent writers. It 

 is quite possible that some of these determinations of the 

 older species may have to be changed as the result of later 

 studies and the acquisition of fuller material but I believe the 

 most of them will stand as here recognized. A large number 

 of our species were described by Say and Fitch, whose descrip- 

 tions, especially those of Say, were concise and sufficient, and 

 most of these species have been located with reasonable cer- 

 tainty. Emmons' species published in the Natural History of 

 New York are generally recognizable by the excellent figures 

 he gives while his descriptions are all but worthless. Fair- 

 maire's descriptions are poor but he gives some figures and 

 most of his North American species have been placed with 

 more or less certainty. Of more recent work the best is that of 

 Canon Fowler in the Biologia Centrali Americana. While he 

 touches but few of our species his systematic work on the 

 genera is excellent and it is of much value as supplementing 

 the foundation laid by Stal. Dr. Goding's synopsis of the 

 genera was the best for our fauna published to that time and 

 his later catalogue listed our species as well probably as could 

 then be done, but these papers were of little use in the determ- 

 ination of our species as his descriptions of new forms were 

 poor and he gave no comparative notes to assist in locating the 



older forms. 



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