HEMIPTERA. 153 



of the skin is made. The adult insects wander about on 

 herbage and trees. They have the power of leaping well. 

 The name frog-hoppers has doubtless grown out of the fact 

 that formerly the froth was called ^* frog-spittle/' and w^as 

 supposed to have been voided by tree-frogs from their 

 mouths. The name is not, however, inappropriate, for the 

 broad and depressed form of our more common species is 

 something like that of a frog. 



In this family the antennae are inserted in front of and 

 between the eyes ; the prothorax is not prolonged back of the 

 abdomen (as in the Membracidae) ; and the tibiae 

 are armed with one or two stout teeth, and the 

 tip crowned with short, stout spines, as shown in 

 Ficfure 187. This fissure represents the most com- 



r 1 -r> TT • 1 O Fig. 187.—^//^- 



mon spittle insect of the Eastern United btates, ropkoraquad- 



. . rangularis. 



Aphrophora quadrangular is (A-phroph o-ra quad- 

 ran-gu-la'ris), and one of its tibiae greatly enlarged. 



Family Jassid^e (Jas'si-dae). 



The Leaf- hoppers. 



The most abundant members of the Homoptera, except 

 perhaps the Aphids, are the leaf-hoppers. Large numbers 

 of them can be easily collected by sweeping grass, herbage, 

 or the fohage of shrubs. 



The leaf-hoppers are more slender than the spittle insects, 

 and are also distinguished by the form of the 

 hind tibiae, which are nearly or quite as long as 

 the abdomen, curved, and armed with a row of 

 spines on each margin (Fig. 188). 

 fIg. x%z.-Proco- Among the leaf-hoppers that have attracted 

 attention on account of their injuries to vegeta- 

 tion are the following: The destructive Leaf-hopper, Cicadiila 

 exitiosa (Ci-cad'u-la ex-it-i-o'sa), which is represented greatly 

 enlarged by Figure 189, sometimes infests winter wheat 

 to a serious extent in the Southern States. The Grape- 



