78 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



and hairy ; the wings have very few transverse veins, rarely as 

 many as 10, and no series of costal cross-veins such as is found 

 in all other true Neuroptera, nor are the veins forked just 

 before the margin as in nearly all allied forms. The maxillary 

 palpi have five joints, the last joint longer and more slender 

 than the others ; the labial palpi have three joints, the last joint 

 large and compressed. There are no ocelli. The hind wings 

 are smaller than the front pair, without anal space, and the 

 margin is very minutely ciliate. The legs are moderately long ; 

 the middle and hind tibiae are often fusiform ; the tarsi are of 

 five joints, the basal joint the longest; the claws are simple. 

 The abdomen is shorter in the male than in the female ; the 

 genitalia are not very distinct; but I have figured their shape 

 in the males of two species. 



The adults can be collected from various trees and shrubs in 

 late spring and summer by beating. 



I have found the larva of Coniopteryx several times on the 

 leaves of various trees at and near Washington, D. C. It is 

 a rather flat, fusiform larva, broadest on the mesothorax, hav 

 ing a triangular head, with the middle portion slightly extended, 

 and antennae that are two-jointed and cylindrical. The color 

 is dark reddish or brown, with bands and spots of white. The 

 tip of the abdomen ends in a slender sucker. In California 

 Professor Woodworth has observed the larva of a Coniopteryx 

 a mottled black and white larva sucking the eggs of the 

 red spider. He noticed that when fully grown it spun a double 

 cocoon, made up of an outer flat layer and an inner spherical 

 case. 



In Europe the larvae of two genera, Coniopteryx and Aleur- 

 opteryx, have been described by Low. The former has a very 

 slender beak and slender palpi; the antennae are also simple, 

 of two joints, the second much the longer and tapering to the 

 tip. In Aleuropteryx the beak is short and broad at base ; the 

 palpi have the terminal joint greatly swollen ; the last joint 

 of the antennae is truncate at tip and rather broader there than 

 elsewhere, and has a long bristle; the body is more slender 

 than in Coniopteryx. 



The Aleuropteryx larva was found feeding on scale insects 

 on a pine tree. It pupated in a double cocoon, composed of 

 an inner dense spherical case and some loose outer layers. It 

 remained in the pupal state twenty days. Dr. Low, who bred 

 this larva, believed that there were two generations in a year. 

 I think that our eastern species have two generations each year, 

 as Mr. J. H. Emerton has recently bred Coniopteryx vicina 

 from cocoons found during the winter. 



These tiny mealy-winged insects were a puzzle to the early 



