Ill 
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Then we have F. M'Coy Cicada moerens. " The great black or manna cicada." 
Prodromus of the Zoology of Victoria. Decade V, Plate 50. Gives a life history of Cicada 
moerens, and states that Eucalyptus manna is formed by this cicada. 
This large species of Cicada piercing the young twigs of the Peppermint Gum tree (really the White 
Gum) (Eucalyptus viminalis) causes an abundant exudation of sap, which, drying in the hot, parched air 
of midsummer, leaves the sugary solid remains . . . white sweet manna in little irregular masses. 
Mueller says that M'Coy wrote to him also tracing the " Melitose flow " also to 
the action of Cyclocheila australice (also figured in the Prodromus). This is Thopha 
saccata Amyot, syn. Cyclochila australasicc. See below, p. 112. See also notes on its 
" music " in Bennett's " Gatherings of a Naturalist," p. 270, already referred to. 
The great geographical explorer, Captain Sturt, also in one of his works [I do not find a statement 
in his " Narrative . . . Central Australia." J.H.M.] spoke already of the occurrence of the Eucalyptus 
Manna, where the large Cicada) abounded, an observation confirmed by many observers, and in Tasmania 
by Mr. S. H. Wintle, who remarks that these insects have been most numerous where the manna has been 
most abundant. (" Eucalyptographia," under E. viminalis.) 
Mr. Augustus Simson, a Tasmanian observer, wrote to Mueller that 
He had seen near George's Bay trunks of E. viminalis with streams of so-called manna adhering 
to them even to near their base ; it was exuding from perforations of the bark made by Cicada moerens ; 
hundreds of these insects were on the trunk, with their boring organs buried in the bark. 
Then follow other details of the life history of the insect. 
Eucalyptus manna occurs, however, also in the south of Tasmania, where the large Cicadas according 
to Mr. Simson, are unknown, but where species of much smaller size are to be met with. (" Eucalypto- 
graphia," under E. viminalis.) 
Mr. James Dawson, of Camperdown, Victoria 
Found a considerable quantity of manna adhering to leaves and twigs, which he had experimentally 
closed in a muslin bag, though the exudation seemed to emanate from insect punctures previously formed ; 
thus it was proved that the melitose could not be secreted by the Cicadas themselves, as erroneously still 
supposed by many colonists. He, moreover, found leaves, with accidental holes, around which manna 
was exuded on both sides. (" Eucalyptographia," under E. viminalis.) 
On p. 42 of his work, Ebert writes 
The flow of the manna of Eucalypts is caused by the sting of Cicada moerens, but the manna is of 
vegetable origin caused to flow by the insect but not secreted by the insect. 
He is following M'Coy and others. 
Now we come to some papers having for their object the scientific classification 
of these insects. 
" Notes on Cicadas," by W. W. Froggatt, Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W., x, 526 (1895). 
" As a general rule the Cicadas prefer the trunks and stout branches to the young twigs 
and foliage, for with their long and powerful sucking mouth they can perforate the bark 
and obtain a plentiful supply of nourishment where the flow of sap is most abundant." 
Thopha saccata Amyot, " Double Drummer," on North Shore and Manly, Sydney, 
seemed to prefer clumps of stunted specimens of Eucalyptus corymbosa, E. robusta, and 
E. resinifera, clinging to the stems. 
