CERCOPID^. 
733 
nearly round; they live a free life upon trees and bushes, the nymphs 
active. We discuss these divisions separately. Nothing is on record 
as to the enemies of Cercopidce / none are really injurious, though 
Machcerota is sometimes abundant on cotton. 
Distant lists 130 species from India, Burmah and Ceylon (Fauna of 
India, Rhynchota, Vol. IY), but there are many more to be found and 
described, even in the plains. One of the most interesting species is 
Machcerota guttigera, Westw., described as making tubes on plants in 
Ceylon. (Trans. Ent. Soc., London, 1886, p. 329). M. planitice, Dist., is 
common on ber (Zizyphus jujuba), on bael ( Mgle marmelos), on cotton and 
other plants in India. The egg is laid on the twig, the nymph producing 
a liquid excretion which it forms into a small whitish tube, in which it 
lives ; it is in fact a “ spit-insect ” in which the liquid excretion dries to 
a solid substance. We figure all stages of this insect, which may be seen 
commonly in the plains. (Plate LXXIX.) 
Aphrophorince. —These are small “ dry-grass ” coloured insects whose 
immature stages are commonly passed in a mass of bubbles of liquid, 
Fig. 508— Phymatostetha ciroumdata. x 8. 
produced by the nymph itself on its food-plant. The common species are 
found on grasses, the white mass of bubbles enclosing the flattened whitish 
nymph. The details of the metamorphosis are not known for any Indian 
species. Poophilus costalis, Wlk., is widespread and common ; Ptyelus 
nebulosus, F., is a little smaller and darker ; P. subfasciatus , Wlk., andP. 
affinis, Dist., have the tegmina mottled dark and light. Clovia puncta, 
Wlk., is the smaller extremely common species, dry-grass colour with 
a single black speck near the apex of the egmen. C. bipunctata, 
