734 
RHYNCHOTA. 
Kby., is less common but is found in the plains. Aphrophora occurs more 
sparsely, A. sigillifera, Wlk., being the common species. 
The Cercopince include the large brightly- 
coloured forms of the genera Phymatostethus and 
Cosmoscarta , which are wholly hill forest insects 
and the smaller, fragile forms of the genera 
Abidama in the plains, of Callitettix and Eoscarta 
in the hills. 
Abidama rufula, Dist., and A. producta, Wlk., 
are fragile inconspicuous insects, found at light or 
on grass ; the former is brown to black, the latter 
has red tegmina edged with black. They are 
nocturnal insects, found on grass by day ; their 
life-history is wholly unknown. In the hills, the Fi f R o2® 
large species of Cosmoscarta are very conspicuous ; 
they are found abundantly on trees and excrete a very noticeable amount 
of liquid honev-dew. 
Jassim:. 
Ocelli placed on the front margin of the head. Posterior tibice with a 
double row of spines. 
This family includes a large number of small linear insects, easily 
recognisable by the spiny tibiae. They are of varied colouring, almost 
always cryptic, in a few sub-tropical forms warning. Green, “ dry- 
grass ” colour and similar tints prevail in those which live on bushes 
or in grass; those living on bark are speckled with black, while those 
which form part of the surface-soil fauna are black. The body is 
usually narrow and with parallel sides, the wings tightly folded round 
the abdomen ; the head is broad, closely united to the prothorax as 
in most leaping insects, the antennae thread-like, small and incon¬ 
spicuous. The legs are well developed, and the hind pair are formed 
for leaping much as in the Acridiids. Males and females are similar, the 
former with clasping organs, the latter with a concealed ovipositor. 
Little is known of the life-history; the eggs are, in the known species, 
laid in the soft tissues of plants; the nymphs are active, found running 
actively on the plant. The number of moults and the details of the 
metamorphosis are not known for any Indian species ; the transform¬ 
ations of Idiocerus are wholly passed on the mango tree and the nymphs 
