Australian insects

The head is broad, more or less truncate in front, with prominent eyes on the sides, and small gem-like ocelli arranged triangularly on the summit; each antenna consists of one stout basal joint surmounted with several (usually four) segments forming a bristle. The tegmina or fore wings, larger and stouter than the hind pair, are furnished with thickened veins, and are frequently mottled with brown, usually forming bands or spots on the cross nervures. The swollen fore legs are spined; the thorax is well developed; and while the large hollow abdomen of the male is pointed at the extremity, that of the female (usually the larger insect) is furnished with a horny retractile ovipositor, which is adapted for cutting the bark of the twig, wherein she deposits her eggs.

The complicated musical apparatus of the male is situated between the thorax and base of the abdomen, and consists of a large plate on either side attached to, but extending over the basal portion of the abdomen (these plates are often called the drums or opercula); beneath in the abdomen is a cavity formed into two cells within which are two thin glass-like plates called mirrors; above these mirrors are bundles of muscles which lead to two membranes formed like kettle-drums; each membrane has a concave and a convex surface, the latter folded and full of ridges.

Haswell (Pro. Linn. Soc. N.S.W. 1886) describes it thus: “The loud shrill note emitted by the insect is the result of a quick succession of crackling sounds produced by the movement of the stiff membrane with its horny ribs, through the agency of the muscle. Under ordinary circumstances, the sounds follow one another with sufficient quickness to produce a continuous note, and this is effected not by the contraction of the muscle as a whole, but by the successive contraction of individual fasciculi (different filaments forming the whole), all of which act on the horny plate, and thus the movements of the muscle on the tendon during the production of the note resemble those of the hammer-board of a piano when a number of keys are being struck in quick succession.”

The life history of cicadas has attracted much attention; on first emerging from the eggs they might easily be taken for minute shrimps, apparently all heads and claws. They cast themselves off the branch and, falling to the ground, burrow into the soil and follow down the roots, where they feed upon the sap and undergo a series of moults. We do not know the length of time that they take to develop underground, but the adults of several of our large species, though each year more or less in evidence, appear in greater numbers every third year, so that it is probable that three years is about the cycle of their subterranean existence. The grotesque pupa burrowing upward when fully developed, bores a vertical shaft often several feet long before it comes to the surface, when it crawls out and climbs up the nearest tree trunk or fence, where it clings till the skin splits down the back, and the perfect cicada emerges. The dry brown pupal shells firmly attached by the sharp claws remain long after the inmates have departed.

Cicadas are well represented in our insect fauna, a number of large handsome species being found along the coastal forest country, and many smaller ones in the interior. The large ones attracted the attention of collectors at a very early date: Donovan, Leach, and Guérin described several, and Walker (British Museum Catalogue, Homoptera 1850) added a number of new species from material in the Museum collections, but his localities and descriptions are very vague and unsatisfactory. Since then Distant between 1882 and the present date has greatly increased our list of described species. In 1904 Dr. Goding and I monographed the Australian Cicadas (Pro. Linn. Soc. N.S.W.), describing a number of new forms, and bringing the number up to 120 species in 18 genera. Last year (1906), the Trustees of the British Museum issued a “Synonymic Catalogue of Homoptera, Part I., Cicadidae,” compiled by Distant; in this a number of alterations in the earlier classification are made, as indicated in his recent contributions on this family in “The Annals and Magazine of Natural History” 1900–1906. He places them in three distinct sub-families which are subdivided into seventeen smaller divisions. Many of our species are now placed in other genera.

The sub-family Cicadinae contains many of our largest and most striking species. Its members have the front edge of the basal abdominal segment on each side produced forward in a leaf-like expansion, which more or less covers the sound organs.

The genus Thopha contains two very fine species: Thopha saccata, “The Double Drummer,” takes its popular name from the great size of the opercula projecting on the sides of the thorax. It is a reddish brown cicada, its wings marked with brown and black, and it measures 5 inches across the outspread wings; it lives in open forest country; has a loud, distinct note; and ranges from South Australia to Brisbane. Thopha sessiliba is a somewhat smaller but brighter-coloured species ranging northward along the Queensland coast from Townsville, and is found in Central Australia at Tennant’s Creek.

The Genus Arunta was formed by Distant to contain two Australian species, of which Cicada perulata described by Guérin is the type. It is a handsome insect, 4 inches across the wings; is of a reddish brown tint mottled with lighter colours; the wings are unspotted; and the male can be easily recognised by the large white frosted opercula. It is not a very common species; it is taken sometimes about Sydney.

The next division contains three genera typical of Australian species. The Genus Cyclochila until lately contained a single species, but Distant has lately described a second from N. Queensland. Cyclochila australasiae is our common large green cicada, called by the children the “Green Monday.” The whole insect is rich green, the colour extending into the nervures of the tegmina; there is a yellow variety not so common, called in consequence the “Yellow Monday”: I have counted as many as 40 of these fine insects resting on the trunk of a small oak-tree in my garden in the early morning.

The Genus Psaltoda contains 7 species peculiar to Australia. Psaltoda moerens, our common black cicada, is called the “Red Eye” by the Sydney boys on account of the bright colour of the ocelli. It measures over 4 inches across the wings, which are mottled with black on the tegmina, and marked with the same colour on the wings. It frequents the smooth white-stemmed gum trees, and ranges from Brisbane, Queensland to Adelaide, South Australia, and is also found in Tasmania. P. harrisi is a smaller and somewhat variable form both in size and colour; it varies from black to brown and even dull green; the wings are very slightly mottled, and it can be easily distinguished from the “Red Eye” by the more distinct silvery patch on the sides of the body.

The members of the Genus Henicopsaltria, four in number, are also peculiar to this country. Henicopsaltria eydouxi, one of our commonest species, frequents the trunks of the rough-barked gum trees; I have counted over 300 on a single tree on the coast near Gosford, N.S.W. It measures nearly 5 inches across the wings; is of a general mottled light brown and chestnut colour, with the wings infuscated with three zig-zag bands of brown; the opercula are orange red. H. fullo, peculiar to W. Australia, is a very distinctive blackish coloured species measuring about 3 inches across the wings; it can be easily identified by its banded wings and the dorsal surface of the abdomen ornamented with a transverse white band about the centre of the body. The Genus Macrotristria now contains 7 species; most of these were originally described in the Genus Cicada, and have representatives in all parts of Australia, two coming from W. Australia, and two richly-coloured green species from the tropical forests of N. Queensland, while Macrotristria angularis, our common, large, dark brown species, variegated with light yellowish spots on the head and thorax and with deeply infuscated wings, ranges from Adelaide, S.A., to Queensland.

The Sub-family Gaeninae contains a number of South American and Asiatic cicadas, among them some with very brightly coloured wings. Two members of the Genus Tettigia are found in North Queensland and North Australia, both of which were once placed in the genus Tibicen; while Tettigia tristigma is the type of the Genus Tamasa. The handsome black and yellow mottled Gaeana maculata, common in India and China, has been recorded by White from Australia, and Goding and I had specimens from the Northern Territory of S. Australia, but Distant does not notice this record.

The Sub-family Tibicininae have the front edge of the basal abdominal segment straight, not produced forward; and the sound organs are entirely uncovered. Venustria superba is a curious ferruginous insect with rich coppery tints upon the tegmina and wings, which comes from North Queensland. Dodd usually collected it in the neighbourhood of termite nests.

The Genus Abricta now includes most of our species previously placed in the Genus Tibicen; thirteen are listed from Australia. Abricta curvicosta, one of the largest, measures about 4 inches across the wings; is reddish brown with a pale stripe down the centre of the prothorax, and three black spots on each of the tegmina. It is one of the common species about Sydney, N.S.W., in midsummer, and is called the “Floury Miller” on account of the silvery pubescence covering the body which makes it look as if it had been dusted with flour. A. aurata ranges from Tasmania and Victoria into the southern districts of N.S. Wales, and is usually found upon the fern trees; it is a smaller darker coloured cicada with a large, sometimes double, black spot on each tegmina.

Distant (Pro. Zool. Soc. 1882) described a number of new species chiefly obtained from North Queensland; and, finding it difficult to give them distinctive specific names that would define their peculiarities, he got over the difficulty by naming them after Australian explorers. A. willsi is a small species measuring about two inches across the wings, which are marked with two small spots, and it can be easily distinguished from all the others by the curious rugose yellowish patch on the sides of the prothorax. It has a very wide range over N.S. Wales, Queensland, North, and probably W. Australia, both along the coast and in the interior.

Parnkella muelleri is only about 1½ inches across the wings which have two spots on each tegmina, and is of a pale yellow tint. It is restricted in its range to North Queensland. The tiny little yellowish green cicada found upon the grassy plains of Southern Victoria and S. Australia, described as Tibicen infans, is now placed in the South African Genus Quintilia.

The Genus Chlorocysta contains two curious pale green insects with 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.

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.

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.

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.

In the Liviinae, the front of the head is not produced into face lobes; the stalk of the cubitus is either shorter, as long as, or longer than the lower branch of the cubitus. Crewiis longipennis is of a general bright red tint, and is ¼ of an inch in length; it ranges from Tasmania to the North of New South Wales. The larva forms a rounded pale yellow lerp covered with fine woolly filaments upon the leaves of gum trees. Lasiopsylla rotundipennis forms a large, flattened, irregularly rounded white scale on the foliage of Eucalyptus melliodora, under which the flattened, pale green larva hides.

The Sub-family Aphalarinae contains a number of small species, and the head is produced in front into face lobes, with the stalk of the cubitus as long as or longer than the stalk of the sub-costa. They usually form lerp scales; but some are naked, or clothed with soft white woolly filaments.

Several species of the Genus Spondyliaspis belong to this group; all of them form “sugar lerp scales,” often encrusting all the foliage of the young gum trees, and are so abundant that in the Mallee scrub country in Victoria and S. Australia the blacks used to collect and eat it in quantities, and had a regular “manna harvest.” Cardiaspis artifex is a short, reddish yellow insect, the larvae of which form beautiful barred shell-like lerps, marked with red and yellow to look like delicate fretwork, upon the leaves of Eucalyptus robusta. C. tetrix is a pretty pink and grey species found in the Adelong district, N.S.W. The larva constructs a most remarkable cage of fine red bars, not unlike a lady’s hair net, beneath which the larva crawls about freely like a bird in a cage. Rhinocola corniculata often covers the leaves of different eucalypts with its elongate, opaque, horny, yellow lerps. The test is not unlike that of a large Mytilaspis scale, but is open at the broad end through which the little larva can creep in and out. It ranges from New South Wales to Western Australia. R. eucalypti is a very tiny, little, dark brown psylla, the larvae of which cluster at the tips of the foliage of young blue gums (Eucalyptus globulus), and cover themselves with threads of white flocculent matter. It was described by Maskell from New Zealand, but is common both in Tasmania and Australia: it has also been introduced into Africa on the same eucalypt.

The larvae of the Genus Thea are curious, broad, flattened creatures, with hard integument. They hide under the dead bark on the trunks of the white stemmed gums, spreading their white woolly secretion around them; the ants look after them, and probably protect them from many enemies in return for the “honey dew,” of which secretion the ants are very fond. Thea opaca is of a general reddish pink colour mottled with brown and black; the wings are transparent, with a dark stigma on the fore wing.

The members of the Sub-family Psyllinae have the same well-defined conical face lobes, but the stalk of the cubitus is shorter than the stalk of the sub-costa. The larvae may be quite naked, but most of them produce woolly filaments more or less covering them, and form no true lerp scales or galls. The typical Genus Psylla comprises a number of usually small and somewhat stouter insects, many of which cluster in swarms like aphids upon the foliage of wattles and other trees. The eggs, larvae, pupae, and perfect insects may be found on the same twigs. Psylla acaciae-decurrentis is a slender, dark-winged insect remarkable for the length of its slender antennae; it is common upon the black wattle in early summer. P. acaciae-baileyanae is a much smaller yellow species with mottled wings that often swarms over the cultivated “Cootamundra wattle,” and is reported to have destroyed all the flower-buds of this wattle in the neighbourhood of Melbourne in 1905. P. capparis is a mottled winged species that frequents the foliage of Capparis mitchelli in the western scrubs: P. schizoneurodes infests the twigs of the allied “Warrior Bush”; the larvae are covered with flocculent matter and have a globule of liquid substance at the tip of the abdomen; when massed together they look much like “woolly blight” on the apple trees. P. sterculiae is a small brownish species, found upon the twigs of the Kurrajong, and has a wide range over New South Wales.

Two very curious species are found upon the thick fleshy leaves of our native figs, and one, Mycopsylla fici, lays her eggs upon the foliage, the squat grey larvae burying their beaks in the leaf cause a flow of milky sap, under which they hide in small colonies, and when ready to emerge crawl from beneath the viscid mass. Where numerous, they cover the foliage with these sticky patches, and cause the leaves to fall. The perfect psylla is a handsome, dark-coloured insect with long antennae and ample transparent wings.

Sub-family Triozinae. The cubitus of the wing has no stalk, the veins forking directly from its junction with the sub-costa. All our species, with one exception, come into the typical Genus Trioza: many of them are gall makers in the larval state, others are naked and cling to the under surface of twigs and leaves. The larvae of the gall-makers are broad, oval, flattened creatures, covered with a mealy secretion, the outer margin of the dorsal shield in each case being fringed with fine regular ciliae. Most of the perfect insects are thickset; they range from chestnut brown to reddish yellow; and have clear transparent wings. Trioza carnosa makes a large, oval, fleshy, brightly tinted gall with an irregular opening at the summit, often covering and aborting the foliage of eucalypts about Sydney. The larva of T. eucalypti forms a rounded, hard, woody gall upon the leaves, without any opening on either side until the gall contracts and splits open, when the full grown pupa emerges. T. casuarinae is a very pretty little psylla with dark-barred wings, and its curious naked fish-like larva clings to the slender foliage of the she-oak (Casuarina). T. banksiae has a tiny, naked, yellow larva covered with silvery down; it is a rare insect found on the under surface of the honeysuckle leaves. Nearly all these species have been collected within a day’s journey from Sydney, but have a wide range on the eastern coast.

The Sub-family Prionocneminae was formed by Scott for Walker’s Genus Tyora, in which I have placed two species. Tyora sterculiae is a pale green, aphid-like psylla, with long antennae and large transparent wings. The larvae cluster together on the leaves of the Kurrajong, forming white patches over the foliage, and each larva throws out slender white threads, fringing the tip of the abdomen and radiating about the body. T. hibisci is a delicate pale green insect which has been taken on the foliage of Hisbiscus tiliaceus, about Brisbane, Queensland, and also on a creeper on the Tweed River, New South Wales.

Family 7. Aphids or Plant Lice.
APHIDAE.

These destructive little creatures are well known to gardeners under different names, such as “smother or green-fly,” “plant lice,” or “blight.” This family contains one of the most destructive and widespread pests that ever attacked cultivated plants, namely the vine louse (Phylloxera vastatrix), which has destroyed millions of pounds’ worth of vines, and has followed its host all over the world. Aphids are all small soft-bodied creatures, green, black, or yellow in colour; and at least ten introduced species are to be commonly found in our gardens and fields; but as far as I know, no indigenous aphid is recorded in Australia.

The life history of these insects is very complex; the winter eggs or larvae lie dormant during the cold season in crevices on the trunks, or hidden underground on the roots of their host plants; but as the warm weather approaches they crawl up the trunks, cluster round the opening leaf buds, and sticking their sharp beaks into the tissue, suck up the sap. These give birth to living larvae which grow very rapidly, and in turn (though virgin females) bring forth fresh broods of live larvae that in the course of several generations develop two pairs of large transparent wings, and consist usually of both sexes, though in some species the males are wanting. The last generation fly away in swarms but before dying deposit eggs which carry on the cycle of their life into the next summer.

The wingless forms are short, stout, rounded creatures with small, slightly lobed heads, and rather stout 3 to 7 jointed antennae; the legs are well-developed with two-jointed feet. The abdomen often swells out into a flask-like shape; it is furnished on the 5th segment with a pair of cylindrical tubes called siphons, through which it discharges a sweet secretion known as “honey dew”; this liquid is often ejected in such quantities on aphis-infested plants that it covers the foliage, and attracts the ants, which come and lick up the globules of honey-dew on the tips of the siphons, and even caress the aphis with their antennae; and therefore in popular works these insects are often described as “ants’ cows.”