THE SUGAR-CANE LEAFHOPPER. 15 
LIFE HISTORY AND HABITS. 
The writer spent two months in the cane fields during the outbreak 
and in the early part of July, 1903, presented a report to the Hawaiian 
Sugar Planters’ Association on the occurrence and injury of the 
species. Later an account of these investigations was published, 
from which a part of the information on the leafhopper presented 
herewith is taken.@ 
‘“‘TLeafhopper” is a popular term applied to a certain group of 
plant-feeding insects of the order Hemiptera. The family Fulgo- 
ride, to which the Hawaiian sugar-cane leafhopper belongs, is 
included in this group. Common characteristics of these insects 
are their peculiar habit of springing or jumping when disturbed; 
their feeding upon plants by sucking from the tissue the plant juice 
or sap through a beak or proboscis, a piercing organ by means of 
which they puncture the epidermal layer of the plant; their incom- 
plete development (that is, the young upon hatching from the eggs 
resembles the adult, except that it 1s smaller in size, wingless, and 
sexually immature and by a gradual process of development acquires 
the characteristics of the adult); and the fact that their eggs are 
deposited in the same plant upon which the young and adult appear 
and feed. 
The eggs of the sugar-cane leafhopper (Plate II, figs. 1, 2) are 
deposited beneath the epidermis of the cane plant in situations 
along the midrib of the leaves, in the internodes of the stalk, or, in 
the case of young unstripped cane, in the leaf sheath of the lower 
leaves. When deposited in the leaves, the eggs are inserted from 
either side, but usually from the inside, the greater number being 
in the larger portion of the midrib down toward the leaf sheath. 
The place of incision is indicated at first by a whitish spot, this being a 
waxy covering over the opening. The female accomplishes the process 
of oviposition by puncturing the leaf or stem with her ovipositor, 
which organ (fig. 1, b) is plainly visible on the lower side of the abdo- 
men, attached to the body at the center behind the last pair of legs 
and extending backward along the median line of the abdomen, 
reaching nearly to the end. By the aid of this structure the female 
pierces the epidermis of the cane stalk and through the one opening 
forms a cavity or chamber to receive the eggs. The number of 
eges deposited in each cavity varies, the writer finding the average 
to be between four and six. That a single female is responsible for 
many of these clusters has been verified by the writer by observation. 
As the growth of the cane continues and the new leaves unfold 
toward the top of the plant, the infested leaves naturally occupy 
“Van Dine, D. L.—A sugar-cane leaf-hopper in Hawaii, Perkinsiella saccharicida. 
<Hawaii Agr. Exp. Sta., Honolulu, Bul. 5, pp. 29, figs. 8, 1904. 
