The learned authors of the Introduction to Entomology have 

 most justly observed that " of all the Linnean Orders this 

 (Neuroptera) appears to consist of the most discordant tribes; 

 so that it seems next to impossible to construct a definition 

 that will include them all :" of the truth of which remark there 

 cannot be a more convincing proof than the genus before us, 

 when compared with the Libellulidae for example, or even the 

 Filicornes to which section it belongs, and the want of ocelli and 

 reticulated wings excludes it at present even from the family 

 in which it must be included, for the contour of the head and 

 the structure of the trophi prove beyond a doubt its affinity to 

 Panorpay although the ovipositor with which the females are 

 furnished, is different to every thing we can recollect to have 

 seen in any of the Orders, unless it be that of the genus 

 Psylla; it is we apprehend, like the appendages o^Blatta, em- 

 ployed for carrying the eggs as well as for depositing them, 

 for it has no oviduct, and the 2 valves open vertically instead 

 of laterally, as in Orthoptera and Hymenoptera. The man- 

 dibles it will be seen are serrated, and not bifid as described 

 by Panzer, and the stalks of the maxillae unite and form a base 

 for the mentum. 



Dr. Leach first added this curious insect to our Fauna by 

 detecting a single specimen at Costessey in Norfolk in the 

 month of December ; and last November and January, Mr. 

 Henry and Mr. Francis Walker found 4< or 5 specimens se- 

 creted in the moss in a plantation at Southgate ; and it is to 

 their handsome contribution of specimens that I have the op- 

 portunity of presenting my readers with dissections and an ac- 

 count of this extraordinary genus. It is remarkable that all 

 the specimens hitherto taken in this country have been fe- 

 males, and I have not been able to find even a foreign speci- 

 men of the other sex in our cabinets, which I very much re- 

 gret ; they probably may appear earlier than November, and 

 may not reside in the moss as the females do. B. hijemalis 

 occurs in Sweden and Germany during the winter, and upon 

 the Alps amongst the snow. 



Hypnum velutinum (VelvetFeather-moss), the plant figured, 

 is a little magnified. 



