SP0L1A ZEYLANICA. 
97 
Introduction. 
T is the aim of the present Paper to enlarge and systematize our 
-*■ knowledge of the Ceylonese forms of that important group 
of Orthoptera known as the Tettigidae,* and to furnish a basis for 
their future study. Some of the species of the Island noted by 
various writers, the descriptions of which are scattered through 
several scientific publications, have been brought together, and for 
the most part redescribed in detail. Six new genera and about 
nine new species are described here for the first time. Alto¬ 
gether sixteen genera and approximately twenty-seven species 
including varieties are treated. At present no others are known 
in Ceylon. 
Obscure forms of Orthoptera, such as the Tettigids, have rarely 
been thoroughly collected in any tropical island, and for this 
reason peculiar interest attaches to the present study. 
Ceylon prom a General Viewpoint. 
Ceylon is two hundred and sixty-six miles from Point Pedro, 
the northerly extremity to Dondra Head at the extreme southern 
point of the Island. It is one hundred and forty and a half miles 
in breadth at the widest part from Colombo on the west, to 
Sangemanhand on the eastern coast, and comprises an area of 
twenty-four thousand seven hundred miles. (Ceylon, 1876, p. 13.) 
One may well conceive the richness of the flora of the Island on 
referring to the photographic plates in Emil Schmidt’s travels 
(1897) depicting the landscape of the country. Here are disclosed 
the wild tangle of vegetation, with the winding streams here and 
there skirted by tropical forests. In this volume and in the pages 
of Cave’s work (1901) we find pictured the paradise of animal life. 
In the jungle or among the dead leaves in the shade of the forests, 
in the grassy fields, or by the margins of the rivers, the ponds, and 
* The term Acrydiidce of late has been substituted for the term Tettigidce by 
some entomologists, notably Kirby (1902), much to the confusion of nomen- 
clature. 
