June, 1901] 
Ball — Aphrophora Larvae 
123 
This process of froth making in the Cercopidae was discovered 
and first correctly described by Professor E. 8. Morse, of Salem, 
Mass., and published many years ago in his Elementary Zoology. * 
His observations were probably made on the larvae of A. spu- 
marius which belongs to the genus Philaenus as now recognized. 
In the genus Aphrophora as now limited little is known of the 
food habits of the larvae. One species (A. 4 -notata) has been found 
on various plants and shrubs. The remaining three eastern species, 
which belong to a different group and are of some shade of brownish 
testaceous, have been given as feeding on pines in the adult state by 
various authors. Dr. Fitch has described the larvae of one of these 
(A. parallela, Fig. 4, Plate 10) as forming frothy masses on the tips of 
pine twigs, and in the Nat’l Museum Coll, are some Aphrophora 
larvae labeled “Pa. On Pine, July 7,” that undoubtedly belong to 
this species leaving little room to doubt the correctness of Fitch’s 
determination. 
There are two species belonging to the parallela group occurring 
in the Rocky Mountain region both found in the adult stage on pines. 
Of one of these (A. permutata, Fig. 1, 2 and 3, Plate 10) larvae were 
found in abundance on two different plants Chrysopsis villosa and 
Lupinus sp. Both of these plants grow in clumps and it was always 
down in the bases of these clumps, some of them often down below 
the surface of the ground among the roots, that the larvae were 
found. Often ten or fifteen would be found in a single clump their 
united froth masses, held up by the coarse stems, reaching a diame- 
ter of two inches or more. 
The larvae were found in these clumps from late in May until 
the first week in July in the foot hills, and higher up in the 
mountains they were just beginning to emerge July 20th. When 
ready to emerge they climb up a stem during the night far enough 
to free themselves from the froth and as soon as the sun strikes then 
in the morning they burst their pupal skins and an hour later they 
are ready to fly up to the pine trees where their color admirably 
protects them. 
Although both these plants grow very commonly over a wide 
extent of territory the Aphrophora larvae have never been found on 
them except where they were within a short distance of a pine tree. 
At first sight it would seem probable that the eggs were deposited 
in the twigs of the pines, and that the young larvae dropped to the 
ground, and from there sought out a food plant, as is the case in some 
Cicadas. But as numerous larvae were found in positions practically 
inaccessible to any such means of distribution — such as on the op- 
posite side of a sharp ledge of rocks, across a bramble thicket, or 
* For a detailed account of this process see Prof. Morse's article “A Bubble-blowing Insect." 
Pop. Sc Monthly, May, 1900. 
