BUGS. 237 



under-side of the body, and on the costal margin of the wing-covers with yellow ; the 

 wings are milk-white. The wing-covers are a little wider at tip and cut square off. It 

 varies considerably in length ; measuring from one-third to nearly one-half an inch 

 from the front to the end of the wing-covers. 



In the latitude of Maryland it affects the wild grape-vines, drawing nourishment 

 from the tender shoots and midribs of the leaves during its young stages. It may 

 also be seen occasionally upon the black alder and other bushes near brooks and 

 marshes ; but in the adult stage it lives iipon a variety of small trees and bushes, with- 

 out seeming to take food from any of them. Its feeble, fluttering flight strikingly 

 recalls that of the small, white Arctian moths. 



The other species, 0. firidnosa, forms quite a contrast to the preceding, although 

 living in similar places, and having much the same habits. It is a coarser insect, of a 

 slate, dark gray, or blackish color, which is made to appear bluish by the pruinose 

 powder that covers most of the surface. When fresh, the head, face, under-side of the 

 body and legs are yellow, the costal margin is white, and the wings are smoke-brown. 

 When rubbed, the wing-covers are seen to be blackish, becoming translucent towards 

 the tip, and having a pale spot at the pterostigmal areole, and a larger spot next the 

 basal angle of the corium, the latter marked with three or four roundish, "black spots ; 

 the suture bounding the clavus is also of a pale yellow or whitish color. It is a little 

 smaller than the preceding species, and has the basal angles of the wing-covers more 

 distinctly prominent. 



Mr. Riley informs us that the female cuts a continuous slit with its ovipositor in 

 the skin of sassafras twigs, the edges of which are thereby turned up and bring to view 

 a regular series of long, oval, yellow eggs, with the end of one tightly pressed upon 

 the end of the next, and so on to the extremity of the row. " About the middle of 

 May these eggs produce little hoppers, which leave a thin pellicle attached to each 

 shell at the point of egress. As soon as they are fairly engaged in pumping the sap of 

 the tree on which they hatch, these insects copiously secrete a white, mealy substance, 

 which completely covers them." After shedding the skin three times, they reach the 

 adult stage. This is generally reached in late summer or early autumn, although num- 

 bers of the nymphs may often be seen as late as the middle of October in Maryland, 

 sitting upon the leaves of black alder, paw-paw, and other bushes, or creepers, in damp 

 situations. It has a wide distribution, extending from Mexico and the West Indies 

 northeast to the Mississippi Valley, and from thence through all the States to eastern 

 Massachusetts. 



Near these is placed the genus Flatoides, which includes a few of the most remark- 

 able insects known. Some of these are residents of Madagascar; two or more species 

 inhabit tropical South America, another is found in Mexico, and still another in the 

 West Indies. 



F. tortrix well represents the genus as it appears in Cuba and San Domingo. It 

 carries the wing-covers nearly horizontal, and in this attitude the insect has the out- 

 line of a wide feather-fan. The costal area is very wide, produced into prominent 

 lobes at base, and is crossed by a series of close-set veins which fork on the outer ends. 

 The thorax narrows towards the head, the prothorax forming a lunate cap, fitting 

 between the eyes, and the head, correspondingly narrow, is turned up at tip. On the 

 somewhat flat sides, the hemispherical eyes project very prominently. The general 

 color of the insect is a pale gray, closely powdered with white ; the under-side, the 

 abdomen, and legs being pale brownish or yellow. On the wing-covers, which have a 



