NEUROPTERA. 573 



wings, the males make their escape from the posterior extremity of their cocoons backwards, and then 

 seek the females, which are much larger than them. Reaumur observed two small points like ocelli 

 at that part of the head which corresponds with the mouth. I have discovered in the head of the male 

 of the Coccus of the elm ten small similar points, as well as two halancers on the sides of the thorax. 

 Geoffroy states that the females have at the extremity of the body four white filaments, which appear 

 only on pressing the body of the insect. 



Dorthez observed upon the Euphorbia Characias a species which appears to differ in several respects 

 both of structure and habits from the other species, and which determined M. llosc to form this insect 

 into a distinct genus, named Dorthesia. The antennoe have nine joints, much longer and slenderer in 

 the male than in the female ; the latter continues to live and to he active for some time after depositing 

 her eggs ; the male has the extremity of the body furnished with a thick brush of long white threads : 

 hence this insect is nearer allied to the Aphides than to the Cocci. 



The Cocci appear to injure the trees, by causing by their punctures a too abundant overflowing of 

 the sap. Hence they require the attention of those persons who cultivate peaches, oranges, figs, and 

 olives. Some species attack the roots of plants ; some are precious on account of the splendid scarlet 

 colour they furnish for the dyer. Further researches on these insects might detect others equally 

 uscfid in this respect. 



Geoffroy divided these insects, which are called by the French Galle insectes, or, by contraction, GalUnsectes, 

 into two genera, Chermes and Coccus; the latter was called by Reaumur, Progall-insecte. 



The Mealy-bug-, C. adonidum, is somewhat of a rosy hue, with the body covered with a white mealy powder; 

 the wings and anal setae of the male are of the latter colour. The female has the sides of the body furnished with 

 appendages, of which the two posterior are longer, and form a kind of tail. The female envelopes its egjrs in a 

 white cottony secretion, which serves them as a nest. It is naturalised in our hothouses, where it does much 

 mischief. 



The female of Coccus Cacti [the Cochineal insect of commerce], is of a dark brown colour, covered with a white 

 down, flat beneath, convex above, margined, with the segments rather distinct, but becoming obliterated at the 

 period of oviposition. The male is of a dark red, with white wings. It is cultivated in .Mexico upon a species of 

 Cactus or Opuntia, and is distinguished by the name of Metti que, or fine cochineal, from another closely allied 

 species, smaller and more cottony, called the wild cochineal. It is celebrated for the crimson dye that it pro- 

 duces; it also furnishes carmine. This production is one of the chief riches of Mexico. 



( 'occus polonicus [or the Scarlet Grain of Poland], was also employed in Poland as a considerable object of com- 

 merce, before the introduction of the Coccus Cacti as a dye. It lives upon the roots of Scleranthut perennu, and 

 some other plants. The colour produced from this species is almost equal to that of the Coccus Cacti. 



C ■'■r«s I/iris, Linn., which lives upon a small kind of oak in the south of Europe, and of which the female 

 reaches the size of a pea, was employed before the introduction of cochineal. It is also still employed in 

 medicine. 



A species from the East Indies produces gum lac, and another is employed in China for the manufacture of 

 wax tapers. 



A male Coccus, from Java, remarkable for having the antenna! composed of about 22 joints, moniliform, and 

 very pilose, having two thick and nearly coriaceous wings, composes the genus Monophleba of Leach. 



[These insects have recently been divided into several other genera by llliger, Bouche", Burmeister, &c.J 



THE EIGHTH ORDER OF INSECTS — 



THE NEUROPTERA (Odonata, and the major part of Symstata, Fabr.),— 



la distinguished from the preceding orders by the fore-wings being membranous, generally 

 linked, transparent, ami similar to the two posterior in respect to their consistence and m 

 from the 10th and following, by the number of these organs :is well as 1>\ the structure of the 

 mouth, which is lilted for mastication, or furnished with true mandibles and maxillae, that 



is, formed on the ordinary plan [lor biting, a character which separates this order from the 



th, or that of the Lepidoptera, of which the fore-wings are, moreover, mealy. In the 

 Neuroptera these wings have their surface furnished with a very fine net-work ; the inferior 

 being mostly as large as the superior, or sometimes larger, sometimes narrower, hut longer. 



The maxillae and the inferior puce id' the lower lip, or the mentum, has never a tubular 



