78 



size, but has a brown spot on each side of the thorax behind the horns, and a bar across 

 the middle of the back and the posterior tip, of the same colour. 



Telamona ampelopsidis, Harris. — Is a rather large Tree-hopper, sometimes measuring 

 half an inch in length. It is found on the Virginian Creeper {Ampelopsis quinquefolia) 

 and is very much the same colour as the bark of that plant. The thorax is raised up in 

 the middle into a square hump and is crossed with three, more or less distinct, brown 

 bands. I have taken this insect in the month of July. 



In some of the Cercopidae the face slopes downwards towards the breast ; the thorax 

 is of moderate size, and never extends much beyond the base of the wing-cases, and does 

 not conceal the head when viewed from above. 



The Frog-hoppers (Amphrophora), also called Cuckoo-spits, are those insects which 

 have the habit of enveloping themselves in the remains of the liquid food which they suck 

 from plants and then eject again in the form of a frothy substance with which they 

 entirely cover themselves, in the same way that the larvae of some beetles, to a less extent, 

 cover their bodies with the remains of their solid food. In the perfect state, to which 

 they attain late in the summer, they are very active insects, mostly of dull colours, and 

 are to be found in grass and low herbage ; one species, however, A. parallela, Say, is the 

 insect which forms the small masses of foam, which may be seen on the young branches of 

 pine trees in June and July. It is an oval brown insect about half an inch long with 

 a white spot in the middle of each hemelytron. The popular names of these insects 

 are taken from an absurd idea, which actually dates back to the days of Aristotle, and 

 which is fully believed in by many people even to-day that the frothy excrementitious 

 secretion was the spittle of the cuckoo or the frog. 



Clastoptera proteus, Say, is a pretty little short and broad insect, roundish in 

 shape and about two lines in length, having the head and thorax black with three bright 

 yellow stripes; the heru elytra are of a peculiar shape, being deeply grooved in the middle 

 and having the apices turned abruptly down ; they are also marked with two short oblique 

 yellow stripes, running from the shoulders to the middle of the back, and at the tip of 

 each wing-cover there is a black spot. This species is said to feed on the cranberry and 

 blueberry. 



C. obtu^a, Say, found on hickory, is a rather larger species of a much less conspicuous 

 colour, being brownish grey, and having the hem elytra veined and spotted with brown 

 towards the apex. 



The Leaf-hoppers (Erythroneura). — There is no better known example of this genus 

 than that dreadful little pest — the grape-vine leaf -hopper E. vitis, which in some years 

 will entirely spoil a whole crop of grapes by destroying the leaves just when the berries 

 are half formed. This annoying little fly is almost rendering impossible the cultivation 

 of the ornamental Virginia Creeper in this city. 



The grape-vines do not appear to have suffered so much, although the havoc among 



these has been very great. The insect that 

 causes all this mischief is really a most beauti- 

 ful little creature. It is yellow with two red 

 bands across the wings. (See Fig. 88). In the 

 larva state it is bright crimson and has a very 

 curious sidelong motion like a crab. The per- 

 fect fly nearly always settles underneath the 

 leaf and sucks the sap from the parenchyma 

 by means of its little trunk. The leaves first 

 turn white, in patches, and then fall off. When 

 large numbers of these flies spring from the 

 leaves, as they will if the foliage is moved, 

 they make quite a perceptible sound like rain. I have found them exceedingly difficult to 

 combat, and really think the only way is to disturb them at night and hold a torch for 

 them to fly into. There are a great many species of this genus in Canada, one of which 

 is very troublesome to the apple. These flies are generally, but erroneously, called Thrips. 



