vitreous tegmina and wings, the former much more closely reticulated
than the ordinary cicada, with many cross and parallel nervures. The
head is small, and the body of the male is swollen and cylindrical.
_Chlorocysta vitripennis_ was described by Westwood (Ann. Nat. Hist.
1851); the larger male measures slightly over 2 inches across the
wings. The female is greenish or reddish, the abdomen conical but not
inflated. They frequent low scrub; the southern forms found about
the Tweed River, N.S.W., are green or yellowish; those from North
Queensland quite brown. _Glaucopsaltria viridis_, described by Goding
and me from S. Queensland, is placed by Distant in this genus.
[Illustration: =Fig. 158.=--Section of stem of
eucalyptus, in which the Black Cicada (_Psaltoda
moerens_) has laid her eggs.]
The Genus _Melampsalta_ contains a great number of our small black or
dark brown cicadas often marked with orange red or dull yellow. The
members of the genus are found over Asia, Africa and Europe, over 40
are described from Australia, and 7 from New Zealand. Some species are
very numerous in early summer, and are known as “Squeakers” on account
of their musical notes. _Melampsalta torrida_, originally described by
Erichson from Tasmania, has a wide range round from Queensland to W.
Australia. It is almost black, with several light marks in the centre
of the thorax, and two irregular rounded confluent black spots at the
tips of the tegmina. It measures about two inches across the wings, but
is variable both in size and in the wing markings. _M. abdominalis_,
about the same size, is black, with two lines of reddish yellow on the
apical portion of the dorsal surface of the abdomen, and the under
surface red; when the tegmina are closed there is a distinctive opaline
mark on either side. It is common in S. Australia and N.S.W. _M.
eyrei_ is a much smaller species, with the head and thorax black, lined
with yellow, and the whole of the abdomen except the black tip, bright
yellow; it is common in N. Queensland.
The members of the Genus _Pauropsalta_ are easily distinguished
from those of the previous group by having five apical areas in the
wings, while the former have six. Sixteen species are described from
Australia. _Pauropsalta encaustica_ is our commonest species with a
very wide range over Australia; it is of a uniform black tint, with
faint pale brown marks on the head and prothorax, and an infuscated
patch on the hind margins of the wings; the abdominal segments
are finely ringed with white to reddish brown. _P. annulata_ is a
synonym of this cicada. _P. nodicosta_ is a small brown species from
Kalgoorlie, W.A., with a curious node in the centre of the costal
nervure of the tegmina. _P. mneme_, larger, and broader than _P.
encaustica_, has the abdominal segments richly edged with red. It is
common on the Blue Mountains, N.S.W.
The Genus _Cystosoma_ was created by Westwood (1842) to contain the
great green “Bladder Cicada” which he called _Cystosoma saundersi_,
that at one time was common in the orange orchards around Newcastle,
N.S.W. Mrs. Ross says it is now common about Armidale, N.S.W., on the
sweet brier, and I have also had it on willows from Glen Innes N.S.W.
A second much smaller species, with similar opaque green tegmina, _C.
schmeltzi_, ranges up the coast of North Queensland.
The two curious hairy brown cicadas belonging to the Genus
_Tettigarcta_ are restricted in their range. _Tettigarcta tomentosa_,
the darkest in tint, has each side of the thorax produced into a
distinct spine; it is only found in Tasmania. _T. crinita_ comes from
similar country in the Gippsland forests, Victoria; it is not quite
so hairy, and has the thorax rounded on the outer margin without any
spines.
Family 2. Frog-Hoppers.
CERCOPIDAE.
The members of this family are not very numerous though world-wide in
their distribution. They are stout, wedge-shaped, elongate insects
of moderate size; the head is furnished with large flattened eyes
on the sides; with a few exceptions two ocelli are present on the
vertex between the eyes; the small, short antennae, composed of two
bead-shaped joints surmounted with a bristle, are placed in front
of and between the eyes. The pronotum is large with the triangular
scutellum occupying the centre of the back; the tegmina, longer than
the body, are coriaceous, reticulate, with two long discoidal and five
or more apical cells. The coxae and femora are short; the posterior
tibiae are hardly longer than the others, rounded at the base,
spatulate at the apex, armed on the outer margins with two stout spurs,
the second twice the length of the first; the tibiae and basal joints
of the tarsi are terminated with rows of spines.
Most of our known species were described by the French naturalists,
Amyot & Serville (Annals Soc. Entom. de France 1845); and Walker (Brit.
Museum Cat. Homoptera 1851); and but little attention has been paid
to them since. Our most characteristic species belong to the Genus
_Eurymela_. Seventeen species are listed by Walker from all parts
of Australia. They are large, thickset frog-hoppers, with the head
broad and truncate in front with the face much inflexed; their general
tint is blue-black with the head and elytra marked with red or white
bands or spots. They lay their eggs under the bark of young gum trees,
slitting it in regular rings with their stout ovipositors and leaving
a white papery substance along the punctures. The young cling to the
twigs in clusters after they emerge, and they may often be seen in
different stages of growth upon the same bush. They are very active
little creatures, creeping round the twig when disturbed, and jumping
as soon as they are touched. Many of them are much sought after by ants
which come to them for the honey dew they secrete.
_Eurymela bicincta_ measures ½ an inch in length, and is broad in
proportion; it is of a uniform dark shining blue tint, with the head,
thorax, and base of the elytra bright red. It has a wide range and may
often be found in colonies of 30 or 40 clustering together on a gum
sapling. _E. rubrovittata_ is about the same size; it is black, with
the under surface, face, and three narrow transverse bands round the
thorax and elytra bright red. It has a range from Western Australia to
Queensland. _E. speculum_ is a common species, recorded from Tasmania
to Queensland; it is of a uniform dark blue-black tint with a white
patch on either side of the face, and two irregular oval white spots
on each wing cover. _E. pulchra_ is smaller, with the head and thorax
marked with red, and two irregular broken bands of white on the side of
each wing cover.
Five species of the Genus _Aphrophora_ are described by Walker from
Tasmania and Australia. The members of this genus are known as
“Cuckoo-spittle Insects” from the remarkable habit the larvae have of
enveloping themselves in a mass of frothy liquid, which is supposed to
be formed to protect their soft bodies from insects that might prey
upon them; it, however, really makes them very conspicuous objects on
a twig, and several species of wasps are known in America to drag them
out of this covering and use them to provision their nests.
Our common “Cuckoo-spittle Insect,” found upon the she-oak (Casuarina),
ti-tree (Leptospermum), and Melaleuca, is _Chalepus teliferus_; the
larvae are pale-brown soft oval creatures, which jump when removed
from the frothy liquid, and in this liquid they remain enveloped until
they are ready to emerge. The perfect insect measures under ½ an inch
in length, is of an elongate boat-shaped form; the head is produced
in front as a slender process, curved upwards; the tips of the elytra
come to a compressed point; the general colour is dull reddish brown,
with the horn on the head ferruginous, and the wing covers mottled on
the sides with black. A second species, _Chalepus pugionatus_, has been
described by Stal from Australia.
Family 3. Tree-Hoppers.
MEMBRACIDAE.
This is a group of homopterous insects chiefly confined to the tropical
parts of the world. They are well represented in Australia, though
we have nothing like the remarkable creatures covered with horns and
spines found in South America and popularly known in consequence as
“little devils.” They are remarkable for the wonderful development of
the prothorax which, projecting in front, often forms a hood above the
head, so that the latter is much hidden when viewed from above; the
eyes are globular and project on the sides of the head, and there is
a pair of ocelli in a line between them; while the short bristle-like
antennae are well below the eyes on either side of the base of the
stout rostrum (beak), which at rest is turned down between the legs.
The abdomen is covered with the wings and parchment-like tegmina,
the extremities of which come together to form a sharp point. The
legs are short and stout, without the numerous spines common on the
“frog-hoppers”; and the tarsi consist of three joints, the first
longest. They can both fly and jump very well, but trust to the latter
method to escape from their enemies. They and the members of allied
families can be easily collected by shaking or beating low scrub over
an open umbrella; or can be bred from larval forms on the food plant.
Very little attention had been paid to our tree-hoppers until a few
years ago when Goding published his “Check List of the Membracidae
described from Tasmania and Australia” (Pro. Linn. Soc. N.S.W. 1898);
in this he gives many notes and lists 22 species, chiefly described by
Walker (Brit. Museum Cat. Homoptera 1851), Fairmaire, in his Review
of the family in 1846, and Stal in 1869. In 1903 Goding, in the same
Journal, published a “Monograph of the Australian Membracidae.” In
this he re-describes all the known, and adds a number of new species
to our fauna, bringing the list up to a total of 32 described species,
comprised in 14 genera, grouped in 6 sub-families, based chiefly upon
the shape and structure of the prothorax.
The Genus _Sextius_ contains five species, in which the prothorax is
ridged in the centre and produced on either side into a rather short
acute horn standing out on either side, and with the apical portion
produced into a keeled spine extending to the tip of the abdomen.
_Sextius virescens_, our commonest species, is of a delicate green
colour, and feeds upon the sap of the black wattle and other species of
Acacia. In early summer it may be found among the foliage in all stages
of development; the trees they frequent are frequently infested with
ants which come to obtain the honey dew. The female slits the bark with
her ovipositor, and lays the eggs in rows. _S. depressus_, about the
same size, slightly over ¼ of an inch in length, ranges from Western
Australia to Queensland: at Kempsey, N.S.W., I obtained specimens on a
slender leafed Acacia. It is of similar green colour to _S. virescens_,
with the front of the thorax of a lighter tint, but the projecting
horns are shorter and depressed, and the venation of the elytra is much
finer. _S. australis_ is about the same size, and of a uniform black
tint with a patch of bright silvery pubescence on the sides of the
thorax, which is rounded in front and has very short blunt horns. It
lives upon the branchlets of a prickly Hakea growing about Sydney.
_Lubra spinicornis_ is a slightly smaller insect, of a general dull
brown tint: it has the prothorax produced into two almost erect clubbed
horns. Specimens have been obtained from Brisbane, Queensland, and the
northern rivers of New South Wales. _Daunus tasmaniae_ is of the same
chocolate brown colour; is more robust in proportion. The prothorax
forms a regular hood swelling out on either side at the base of the
tegmina, and the projecting horns are curved and deeply ridged, and
are chisel-shaped at the tips. It is one of the commonest species in
Tasmania, and is recorded over a wide area of the eastern mainland as
far North as Brisbane.
_Eufroggattia tuberculata_ is a rare insect usually found resting on a
twig of a eucalyptus sapling, and is shaped very much like some of the
small plant bugs belonging to the Genus _Testrica_; it is short and
broad in form, with the head exposed; the thorax has short blunt horns;
and the abdomen is broadly rounded at the apex.
Family 4. Lantern-flies.
FULGORIDAE.
This is a very difficult family to satisfactorily define, as their
members are very diverse in general shape and structure, with points of
resemblance that bring some of the genera very close to the Cercopidae
(from which however they differ in the shape of the head), while they
somewhat resemble the Jassidae in the structure of the legs.
The typical forms have the front of the head either produced into a
lance-shaped structure, or the face and vertex either rounded in front
or forming an acute angle. The eyes are large and stand out on the
sides of the head; the ocelli, usually two in number, are situated
below or near the eyes and are placed in the cavities on the cheeks; in
a few species there are three ocelli, while in others they are wanting.
The antennae, situated beneath the eyes, and often very peculiar in
structure, consist of two short joints surmounted with a bristle.
Many are large handsome insects with bright coloured tegmina and wings;
others are of delicate green and grey tints, quite moth-like in form,
but can be easily distinguished by the way they rest with their stiff
roof-like wings, and by their active jumping habits. The legs are often
long, and the hind pair are furnished with a few stout spines on the
tibae, but never thickly spined as in the Jassidae. Many of our larger
species are found both in the larval and perfect state, on tree trunks.
A few species are well-known pests and have an extended range beyond
Australia.
Donovan described and figured several species (Insects of New Holland,
1815); Westwood figured and described two in his “Monograph of the
Genus Fulgora” (Trans. Linn. Soc. 1837): but the majority of our
species are described by Walker (Brit. Mus. Cat. Homoptera, 1851), and
he also named others in “Insecta Saundersiana, Homoptera,” 1858, which
describes the insects in W. W. Saunders’ great collection.
_Siphanta acuta_, better known under the name of _Cromna acuta_, is one
of our commonest fulgorids, moth-like in appearance, of a pale green
colour, with broad square-cut fore wings and a short pointed head. It
measures about an inch across the outspread wings. It has a wide range
in Australia; and its pale green fluffy larvae feed upon the sap of
many plants, and readily jump when touched. It is also well known in
Hawaii, Sandwich Islands, where it is called the “torpedo-bug” from the
way it jumps; and it is said to be a pest on the coffee plants (Smith
Annual Report, Hawaii 1904). A number of species of these moth-like
forms are described by Walker from Australia and Tasmania, and placed
in the Genus _Bythoscopus_, which genus, when further studied, will
probably be much subdivided.
[Illustration: =Fig. 159.=--_Scolypopa (Pochazia)
australis._
The Common Passion-vine Hopper.]
_Pochazia australis_ measures about ¾ of an inch across the short broad
fore wings, which are margined and irregularly barred with chocolate
brown; the head is short and rounded in front. Melichar, in his
“Monographie der Ricaniiden, Wien,” 1898, places _P. australis_ in the
Genus _Scolypopa_. The larva is a green wedge-shaped little creature
clothed at the tip of the abdomen with a bunch of white filaments.
It is a very common insect with a wide range. Sometimes it is a pest
on passion vines; the eggs are laid in the slender tendrils, and
the larvae suck up the sap of the stalks. Another species is common
among the foliage of the silky oak (_Grevillia robusta_) in Southern
Queensland.
_Achilus flammeus_ has the body and wings of a bright red colour, with
the small head showing prominently in front: the broadly rounded opaque
elytra and wings cover the short body. It measures about an inch across
the outspread wings. Nothing is known about its habits or life history,
but in the summer evenings it sometimes comes flying towards the light,
and can be found on the windows.
The Genus _Poeciloptera_ contains a number of small, short broad-winged
forms. Donovan figures _Poeciloptera modesta_, which has pink fore
wings, each marked with two small red spots, and the hind wings have a
pale bluish tint.
_Prolepta dilatata_ is a typical, dull reddish-brown fulgorid,
measuring nearly an inch from the tip of the long slender head to the
extremities of the folded tegmina which are broadest across the tips:
and the slender prolonged forehead is over two lines in length. This
insect was described from W. Australia, but it has a wide range and can
be collected about Sydney. _P. obscurata_ is about the same size, more
rugose in structure, and with markings of dark brown; the markings on
the somewhat opaque wings are more distinct, striated and irregular
than in _P. dilatata_: it can also be easily recognised by the shorter
and thicker process on the forehead. It has a wide range over Australia.
The Genus _Eurybrachys_ contains a number of short, dark brown insects
with broad rounded heads; they run about on the trunks of trees,
jumping at the least alarm. _Eurybrachys leucostigma_ is a very stout,
broad, dull brown insect, about ¾ of an inch across the outspread
wings. Some 16 species are described from all parts of Australia. The
members of the Genera _Ledra_ and _Stenocotis_ are broad elongate
insects with the front of the head spade-shaped, and the convex body
tapers to a sharp point. Their larvae are almost as flat as a bit of
paper. _Stenocotis australis_ is about ¾ of an inch in length, and of a
dull brown tint.
Family 5. Leaf-Hoppers.
JASSIDAE.
These insects are minute froghopper-like forms with the head rounded in
front, and with the body tapering towards the tips of the tegmina. The
head is large, with the oval or rounded eyes projecting on the sides,
and with a pair of ocelli situated on the front margin. The antennae,
bristle-like, of considerable length, are each composed of two short
cylindrical basal joints with a thread-like terminal portion, and are
placed in front and below the eyes. The legs are long, well adapted for
jumping (their chief means of progression); and the tibiae of the hind
pair are thickly clothed with stout spines.
Though these insects are very small, many species appear upon crops
and herbage in such immense numbers that they often do a great deal
of damage, and are very interesting from an economic standpoint. In
Japan, for instance, there are several species very serious pests in
the rice fields; while in North America _Erythroneura vitis_ is a
well-known pest upon the foliage of vines.
They are abundant on the low scrub and grass lands in this country in
favourable localities, and may be easily collected with a sweeping
net, or by shaking the bushes over an open umbrella; yet, probably on
account of their small size and retiring habits, few specimens are to
be found even in our Museum collections.
The sugar-cane hopper, _Perkinsiella saccharicida_, a native of
Queensland, is a dull brownish yellow hopper with a dark parallel
stripe down the centre of the basal portions of the tegmina; it
measures a ¼ of an inch in length. Kirkaldy described it from Hawaii,
where it has been introduced, and is a serious pest to the sugar-cane.
A very pretty little unidentified species, bright red and yellow, with
the fore wings marked with dark brown, is common upon the broad soft
leaves of _Eucalyptus robusta_, where the curious little larvae rest
in families of three or four; each is enveloped in white filaments
which proceed from round the tip of the abdomen. The larvae of another
species have been observed to form large colonies on the surface of
the leaves of low eucalyptus bushes on the hills near Capertee N.S.W.
They suck up the sap, discolouring the centre of the leaves; each
exudes a globule of liquid from the tip of the abdomen, which they drag
out into thin threads with their hind legs, to form a spider-web-like
covering over their bodies, and this web dries soon after the leaves
are gathered.
Family 6. Lerp Insects.
PSYLLIDAE.
These are small homoptera, in appearance suggesting miniature cicadas.
The head is generally broader than long, sometimes deflected and with
large eyes; the ocelli are three in number, the lateral ones situated
on the summit of the head close to the hind margins of the eyes, and
the central one at the apex of the median suture. The antennae are
each composed of ten joints, the first two shorter and thicker than
the following ones, and the terminal joint surmounted with two short
bristles. The thorax is broad, with well developed tegmina and wings,
and like the aphids both pairs might properly be called wings. The
venation is simple, constant, and useful in the work of classification.
They are formed for jumping, with a spine-like process on the coxa of
each hind leg, and the apex of the tibiae of the hind legs furnished
with a row of short fine spines. The tarsi are two jointed, terminating
in a pair of large claws.
[Illustration: =Fig. 160.=--Diagram of Psylla (_Thea
opaca_) ♀.
Showing the structure and venation of the wings.
1_a_, Face lobes; 2_a_, prothorax; 3_a_,
mesanotum; 4_a_, dorsulum; 5_a_, scutellum, tegmina;
1_b_, costal nervure; 2_b_, primary stalk; 3_b_,
clavus; 4_b_, clavical suture; 5_b_, stalk of
sub-costa; 6_a_, stalk of cubitus; 7_b_, sub-costa;
8_b_, lower branch of cubitus; 9_b_, upper branch of
cubitus; 10_b_, lower fork of lower cubitus; 11_b_,
stigma; 12_b_, upper fork of the lower branch of cubitus;
13_b_, radius; 14_b_, lower fork of upper cubitus;
15_b_, upper fork of upper cubitus.
3, Genitalia ♂; 4, Genitalia ♀; 5, Head of _Spondyliaspis
eucalypti_, showing face lobes.
(Pro. Linn. Soc. N.S.W.)]
The female lays her eggs in clusters on the twigs or foliage, from
which the curious, little, large-headed larvae emerge, and, after
undergoing a series of moults during which they develop large
wing-pads on the shoulders and more joints in the antennae, they
finally come forth, perfect four-winged insects. They take their family
name from _Psylla_, a flea, given them by Linnaeus in reference
to their jumping powers, and their popular name of “Lerp Insects,”
from the habit of the larvae of many species of forming “lerp scales,”
shell-like protective coverings formed from exudations from the
insects. Other species cover themselves with flocculent matter after
the manner of mealy bugs; and yet another group form regular oval or
rounded galls on the foliage. They are found in most of the warmer
parts of the world, and are very numerous in Australia, where they seem
to take the place of the APHIDAE to a certain extent; they are
readily collected in all stages of growth upon their food plant, and
can be easily bred.
The Sugar lerp, _Psylla eucalypti_, whose larvae cover the leaves
of several species of gum trees with their white woolly shells, was
described by Dobson from Tasmania (Pro. Royal Soc. Van Diemen’s Land,
1851). It is a slender little green creature with very long face lobes,
and, when crawling about, turns the tip of its body upwards, so that it
looks as if it were walking on its head. It is now placed in the Genus
_Spondyliaspis_.
In the same year (1851) Walker published his Homoptera (Cat. Brit.
Museum) in which he recorded 5 species, all from Tasmania; and it was
not until 1898 that they were again noticed when Maskell described 3
species from Australia (Trans. N. Zealand Inst.); and Schwarz defined
another (Pro. Ent. Soc. Washington) in 1897. Between the years 1900 and
1903 I contributed three papers (Pro. Linn. Soc. N.S.W.) monographing
our species, in which 64 new species are added to our fauna. I followed
Low in the classification of the sub-families, adding Scott’s fifth
division for those with small heads and no face lobes.