MEM BRA CID JE. 
159 
Ha bit at. —Trinidad, Par a. 
Figured from the B.M. Collection. 
The following may be consulted as showing examples of Horiola, in the British 
Museum : 
*11. arcuata, Fab. (Darnis). Stal. l.c. p. 22. Fowl. l.c. p. 86, Tab VI. fig. 20. S. America. 
*11. lineolata, Fairm. l.c. p. 492. 
*11. picta, Fab. H.picta , Fairm. l.c. p. 492. Stal. l.c. p. 21. Para. 
*11. biplaya, Walk. Jour. Ent. p. 318. Fairm. H. ferruginea, l.c. 493. Rio Janeiro. 
*11. striyulosa, Walk. l.c. Suppt. p. 151. Santarem, New York. 
*11. dorsalis, Fitch. 
II. composita, Walk. l.c. p. 587. Venezuela. 
Sub-family : SM1LIINJE. 
The marvellous modifications of form seen in insects is not always effected on the 
side of what we may aesthetically think the beautiful ; indeed oddity and even 
ugliness may appear as a kind of foil to the beautiful, such as the hues of the 
butterfly or the brilliant sheen of the beetle. The curious but unlovely characteristics 
of some Membracidte, seem to occur, fortunately for us, in some inverse proportion 
to the size of the insect. In imagination we might picture the horror raised by an 
immense flying Pterygia suddenly entering our windows, or the unexpected unearthing 
from our garden of a prickly and horned Centrotus, or of one of the species next to be 
described in this family. Even if no larger than a bat or a dog the monster in its 
armour might tax our ingenuity for its destruction. In geological times the 
Pterodactyl must have produced some such fears, which happily we do not experience 
now. 
The Smiliinse embrace numerous genera. Some like Cyplionia and Bocydium are 
remarkable for the large sperical balls attached like counterpoises to their pronota. 
Other forms like Ceresa have interest from their habit of secreting sacharine matter 
like the honey-dew of the aphides, and accordingly they are solicited by ants, which 
seem to be greedy of the liquid. Some species mimic the Ichneumonidae, whilst 
others have the spotted characters and forms of Coccinellidae and other beetles. 
Mr. W. F. H. Rosenberg, who personally collected many species, has kindly given 
me a short account of the field-life of certain communities, but unfortunately during 
his excursions round Cachabe and Paramba in Ecuador, he did not find time to 
identify particular species, as connected with their special habits. He writes me, that 
many of the Membracidse he met with, cluster in groups on the stems of low-lying 
plants, and in many cases their resemblance in colour and form, to buds on these 
