1972] 
Evans — Jascopidae 
12 
Hamilton’s reasons for regarding the Jascopidae as intermediate 
between these two superfamilies are based on evidence provided by 
the head, legs, and abdomen. In respect to the head, his statement 
that all Cicadellidae lack an epistomal suture is incorrect for such 
a line of weakness is retained, not only in the adults of a few spe- 
cies, but also in their nymphs (e.g. Tartessus spp.). The armature 
of spines on the femora, and on the sides and apices of the hind 
tibiae, though sometimes helpful in determining subfamily affinities, 
is of such a varied nature as to be unlikely to provide characters on 
which deductions of remote evolutionary significance can be based. 
Abdominal shape, likewise, can be of little, if any, diagnostic im- 
portance. 
Although the apparent lack of spines on the hind tibiae of Jasco- 
pus notabilis Hamilton, and the presence of two rows of apical 
spines, may be characteristics without special phylogenetic signifi- 
cance, the length of the hind tibiae of this insect and the nature of 
the spinulation of its middle legs suggest to the present author that, 
without doubt, it belongs to the family Cicadellidae of the super- 
family Cicadelloidea. 
References 
Evans, J. W. 
1964. The periods of origin and diversification of the Superfamilies 
of the Homoptera-Auchenorrhyncha as determined by a study of 
the wings of Palaeozoic and Mesozoic fossils. Proc. Linn. Soc. 
Lond. 175: 171-181. 
Hamilton, K. G. A. 
1971. A remarkable fossil Homopteran from Canadian Cretaceous 
amber representing a new family. Can. Ent. 103: 943-946. 
