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Lantern-flies and Their Allies

(Family Fulgoridae.)

To this group belong the well-known lantern-flies of the tropics, but it also includes a host of other species of diverse forms which are separated into no less than 13 subfamilies of which the Delphacinae and Flatinae are best represented in the United States. The tropical forms are large and bright-colored and the true lantern-flies are so-called because of the enormous enlargement of the fore-part of the head which was formerly thought to be luminous. All are vegetable feeders. Our American forms are all small, some resembling leaf-hoppers and others looking almost like little moths. The green Flata (Chlorochroa conica) feeds on corn and the foliage of the sugar beet in Illinois and elsewhere.

Life History of the Frosted Lightning Hopper

(Ormenis pruinosa, Say.)

The so-called "frosted lightning hopper," as this little insect is called, belongs to the subfamily Flatinae, and is one of the moth-like forms. It varies from lead-color to pale green, and is dusted over with a fine white powder, which makes it appear frosted. The eggs are laid in small twigs of sassafras and other trees in a continuous raised slit. They are dirty yellow in color, each 1 mm. long, and are laid on their sides end to end.

About the middle of May these eggs hatch into delicate little hoppers, which immediately settle on the new growth, insert their beaks and begin to pump up sap. They then copiously secrete a powdery waxy secretion which completely covers them. They grow slowly, molt three times and the adult insect issues from the last nymphal skin about September, soon afterwards commencing to lay the hibernating eggs.