414. PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM VOL. 95 
in abundance on /lacourtia, and in lesser numbers on the ornamental 
Caesalpinia pulcherrima, with all stages occurring on the stems of 
the host. Poekilloptera phalaenoides (Linnaeus) (Flatidae) is com- 
mon in all stages on saman (Samanea), where it is restricted to 
branches that are dying back. An otherwise uninfested tree often 
bears one or two small branches that are heavily encrusted with the 
white flocculence laid over the row of inserted eggs or exuded from 
the thoracic and abdominal glands of the nymph. It is apparently not 
possible to rear this species unless twigs in a condition of senescence 
(and not artificially induced moribundity) are provided as food; fresh 
healthy twigs are ignored, even if they are collected from an adjoining 
branch on the limb from which the nymphs and eggs were taken. 
From the writer’s fairly extended observations it would seem that 
seasonal abundance of certain fulgoroid species is occasioned fully 
as much by seasonal suitability of the sap of the host plant group— 
it is rare that only a single plant species is involved—as by a tem-_ 
porary scarcity of parasites, though the evidence in support of this 
supposition cannot be presented here. The nogodinid Bladina 
fuscana Stal attacks pineapple and the ornamental Phoeco discolor, 
spending the day among the brown vegetable debris that collects at the | 
leaf bases and becoming active toward dusk. The minor fulgoroid 
pests of Gramineae are too numerous to list; it is permissible to single 
out Oliarus maidis (described below), which is rather abundant on 
maize, living like other members of this cixiid genus below ground in| 
the nymphal stage and feeding on roots, and to mention the extensive 
delphacid genus Dalbneniion species of which attack Axvonopus com 
pressus, the common lawn and pasture grass of ‘Trinidad. 
The following notes outline the characteristics of the two localities: 
most frequently given in the descriptions: 
Santa Margarita, Mount St. Benedict, Northern Range, Trinidad: 
A small narrow valley traversed by a seasonal stream. It is oc- 
cupied for most of its length by peasant cultivations and by shrubby 
secondary growth, and in its upper reaches passes into a cacao plan- 
tation and the drier type of mountain forest. 
St. John’s Valley, Northern Range: A wide valley lying to the east. 
of the foregoing almost entirely occupied by cacao and mountain 
forest. Most of the collecting here was done along tracks on the edge 
of the forest at about 400 feet. 
Superfamily FULGOROIDEA 
Family CIXIIDAE 
la. Antennae situated before eyes, in deep cavities, or with laminate or ledge- 
like processes below. 
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