74 
Psyche 
[June 
Melampsalta muta (Fabr.) 
Tettigonia muta Fabricius, 1775, Syst. Ent., p. 681. 
Melampsalta muta Kirby (part), Distant (part), Hudson (part), 
Hutton, Kirkaldy, nec Myers. 
Melampsalta cruentata, authors including Myers (nec Fabricius), 
1921, Trans. N. Z. Inst., vol. 53, p. 244, pi. 46, figs. 9-11. 
This is perhaps the most variable cicada known. The 
elucidation of its manifold forms has been far from assisted by 
the century old misidentification of the type. Muta is a dominant 
species which has been and perhaps still is in an extremely plastic 
condition, mutating (?) right and left and occupying most of the 
less extreme ethological stations suitable for Cicadidse. 
It has been possible to collect very large series of this species 
from widely distant localities. This has led to the securing 
of complete chains of intermediates between the extreme forms 
and thus to a demonstration of specific identity. No attempts to 
split off segregates worthy of specific rank have so far been 
successful. Always a collecting excursion in an intermediate 
station, either geographically or ethologically, has brought to 
light connecting links. These annectent forms have shown 
themselves intermediate even in song, perhaps the most stable 
single character in cicadas. 
We divide the species therefore into the following three 
varieties, for which names are already available. — 
Var. a. muta (Fabr.) (as above). 
Synonyms. — Cicada rosea, Walk., 1850, List Horn. Brit. Mus., 
p. 220. 
C. angusta Walk., 1850, op. cit., p. 174. 
C. bilinea Walk., 1858, op. cit., Suppl., p. 34. 
C. muta Huds., and vars. flavescens, cinerascens, 
rufescens, 1891, Trans. N. Z. Inst., vol. 23, p. 51. 
Var. b. subalpina (Huds.), 1891, Trans. N. Z. Inst., 
vol. 23, p. 51. 
Synonyms. — Melampsalta subalpina (Huds.), Myers and Myers, 
1924, Rep. Austr. Ass. Adv. Sci., (1923), p. 428. 
