86 
MEMBRA CIDAE. 
St;il identifies P. intermedia of Walker as the male of U. orozimbo, and here he 
remarks, “I have never seen the females of the insects grouped under Physoplia.” 
Mr. W. F. Kirby, who has rendered to me much valuable assistance in arranging 
the synonomy of the family Membracidse, is inclined to unite several insects, generally 
considered to be distinct species, under the single species U. orozimbo. He treats the 
rest as varieties. Tlius we have U. picta , U. decorata , U. peracece , U. camerani 
treated as varieties, whilst P. nigrata, P. crassicornis, P. intermedia are considered, on 
good grounds, to be the males of U. orozimbo. 
Observations of these insects, made in their living conditions, perhaps can only 
truly arrange and group the sexes of each species. It can scarcely be satisfactorily 
done by a review of a series, however large, which has been formed from localities 
widely apart, and under different climatal surroundings. 
UMBONIA OROZIMBO. 
(Plate XVI. figs. 1 to 4, and 4a.) 
Supra-laterals very blunt, or none; generally a red streak runs down the centre 
of the dorsal horn, and another red streak from the frons rises up the anterior edge 
of the same; the horn is very variable in shape, sometimes being much developed 
and truncated at the apex, as in the males, instead of sharp, as usually seen in the 
females. The colours vary from bright green to testaceous or fuscous ; commonly the 
dorsal horn is variegated with red or else brown streaks; the tegmina have long 
apical cellules, and the membranes are more or less transparent in texture. 
The cause of the above remarkable and special development of the males of 
Umbonia is most obscure. It has been argued that they have become more ornate than 
the females, because such modifications suit the Eesthetic tastes of the latter. Yet 
sometimes the females of insects are the most ornate, in which cases the males 
usually are found to be plain and uniform in colour. Here the disputants would 
seem to belong to two camps, and their arguments tend to destroy each other. 
This is not the opportunity for discussing the elements of beauty in insect 
appreciation, but we may doubt if the vera causa has yet been found in this direction. 
UMBONIA PICTA, Walk. 
(Plate XVI. figs. 5, 5a, 5b.) 
Walk. List. Homop. insect, Suppl. p. 130. 
U. orozimbo is so variable in form that opinion may vary as to the specific values 
of certain examples. I include the above, on Walker’s authority, although the insect 
here figured only nearly approaches his type now preserved in the National Collection. 
Pronotum bright green, roughly punctured; dorsal horn erect, acute, and slightly 
