MEMBRA CIDJE. 
19 ' 
Besides these parts, there are often styles superadded and used for tentative or 
retaining hooks. (PI. B, Figs, i to 6.) 
The females are furnished with more or less developed lateral valves, which enclose the 
above-mentioned cutting blades, and these most plainly distinguish the sex of the insect. 
A good deal of interest is connected with the peculiar attitudes taken by insects 
during their courtship. The antics of spiders and ants have been well described, but 
no biologist has yet told us how the apparently inconvenient pronotal horns and thorns 
of the Membracidse (mostly confined to the male sex) are arranged during the union of 
the sexes. In insects, as a general rule, the male during nuptial flight is carried by 
the female. There are, however, examples in whicli the contrary action obtains, and 
such feats may prove to be impossible in cases where the thorny backs and the branching 
serrated processes of both male and female must make the position untenable. The 
clasping apparatus of the last ventral ring leads to the supposition that the smaller but 
more brilliant partner is trailed ignominiously in the rear. Subsequently the female 
looks out for a suitable nidus for her eggs, which appears to be an absorbing occupation. 
The male organs of the Centrotidse are somewhat more complex and modified 
than those of the Membracidoe. 
I append (Plate B) some details typified by Centro tics leucaspis of India. Other 
details will be found on the different plates which represent other perfect insects. 
In Centrotus and other genera the penultimate somite develops a hinged horny 
sheath, which contains one (or two ?) delicate styles which may act as irritators. 
The ultimate somite furnishes also two hatchet-shaped ciliated claspers, the hooks 
of which point upwards. Within the ring is the penis (not here shown, but repre¬ 
sented in Stictopelta.) 
Above the ring, and in a line with the dorsum, in some species a small two-jointed, 
caudal process appears, such as is often found in Tettigonia, Typhlocyba, and amongst 
the Jassidse, and it is seen also in the Cercopidse. 
In Stictopelta bipunctata this tail or caudal process assumes the form of a rounded 
knob. The lower sheath is double-jointed, the claspers broad and hooked, the penis 
„ ciliated and exserted, with an additional style below it. (PI. A, Fig. 15.) 
The genitalia of the Homoptera are so aberrant from any known accepted type, 
that at present they can only be formulated for specific purposes. There is here much 
to be done, but the subject is not a little intricate. 
The number of ova capable of extrusion must be great, if we may gather from the 
specimen of Umbonia orozimbo I have dissected, after maceration in water. From the 
abdomen three or four dozen eggs were extracted, and the limit of the ovaries was not 
then reached. 
In default of a more exact examination being possible, we may infer that if a 
