220 
HEMIPTERA. 
same proportion, “ a man of ordinary stature should be able 
at once to vault through the air to the distance of a quarter 
of a mile.” Some of these leaping harvest-flies have the 
face nearly vertical, and the thorax very large, tapering to 
a point behind, covering the whole of the upper side of the 
body, and overtopping even the head, which is not visile 
from above. These belong chiefly to the genus Memhracis^ 
to which allusion has already been made; and, as they are 
found mostly on the limbs of trees and shrubs, they may 
receive the name of tree-hoppers.* In others the face slopes 
downwards towards the breast, the thorax is of moderate 
size, and does not extend much, if at all, beyond the base 
of the wino:-covers, and does not conceal the head when 
viewed from above. Some of the insects, with this small¬ 
sized thorax, are familiarly called, in English works, cuckoo- 
spit, and frog-hoppers, and to others may be applied the 
name of leaf-hoppers, because they live mostly on the leaves 
of plants. 
The thorax differs very much in shape in different kinds 
of tree-hoppers (Membracidid^), and the variations of this 
part are productive of many odd forms among these insects, 
and particularly in foreign species. Among the species in- 
habitino; Massachusetts, there are some in which the thorax 
forms a thin and high arched crest over the body, as in 
Membracis camelus of Fabricius, and the vait of my Cata- 
loo-ue.^ To these the name of Membracis. which means 
sharp-edged, is most applicable. In other species (3/. emar- 
ginata and sinuata of Fabricius, and concava of Say^) the 
crest of the thorax is deeply notched on the top. In others 
the whole of the thorax is not elevated longitudinally in the 
middle, but only in some part; thus M. Amjjelopsidis^ has 
an oblong square crest on the middle of the thorax; M. bi- 
* Mr. Rennie, in the “ Library of Entertaining Knowledge,” has misapplied this 
name to the Cicadas, which do not leap. 
[3 Both belong to the genus Smilia, Amyot. — Uhler.] 
M emarginata, sinuata, and concam belong to Entilia, Amyot.— Uhler.] 
M. ampelopsidis belongs to Tdamona, Fitch. — Uhler] 
