I 
THE LEAF-IIOPPERS. 225 
autumn. The following summer they are hatched, and the 
young immediately perforate the bark with their beaks, and 
begin to imbibe the sap. They take in such quantities of 
this, that it oozes out of their bodies continually, in the form 
of little bubbles, which soon completely cover up the insects. 
They thus remain entirely buried and concealed in large 
masses of foam, until they have completed their final trans- 
formation, on which account the names of cuckoo-spittle, 
frog-spittle, and frog-hoppers have been applied to them. 
We have several species of these frog-hoppers in Massachu- 
setts, and the spittle, with which they are sheltered from the 
sun and air, may be seen in great abundance, during the 
summer, on the stems of our alders and willows. In the 
perfect state they are not thus protected, but are found on 
the plants, in the latter part of summer, fully grown and 
preparing to lay their eggs. In this state they possess the 
power of leaping in a still more remarkable degree than the 
tree-hoppers ; and, for this purpose, the tips of their hind 
shanks are surrounded with little spines, and the first two 
joints of their feet have a similar coronet of spines at their 
extremities. Their thorax narrows a little behind, and 
projects somewhat between the bases of the wing-covers; 
their bodies are rather short, and their wing-covers are al- 
most horizontal and quite broad across the middle, which, 
with the shortness of their legs, gives them a squat appear- 
ance.* 
The leaf-hoppers (Tettigoxiadje) leap almost as well as 
the spittle-insects just mentioned ; but their hind legs are 
longer, are not surrounded with coronets of short spines, but 
are three-sided, and generally fringed on two of their edges 
f The following species nre found in Massachusetts, namely: Cercopis ignipecta 
of my Catalogue, and the parallela, quadi' angular is, and oblusa , of Say. The last 
three belong to Germar’s genus Aphrophorarf which means spume-bearer. Cercopis , 
which may be translated impostor, was applied by the Greeks to a small Cicada. 
t [Clnstoptera proteus , an insect of this class which does great injury to the cran- 
berry crop in some parts of Massachusetts, but of whose habits very little has 
been ascertained, is figured on Plate III. Fig. C. — Ed.] 
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