98 APPLE LEAVES MEALY-WINGED FLY. 



of these families the present is most nearly related in much the 

 same doubt in which it has hitherto been. 



Westwood's mealy-wing (Jllcuronia Westiooodii) measures one-tenth of 

 an inch to the tips of its wings which project a third of their length beyond the 

 tip of the abdomen, against the sides of which they are held almost perpen- 

 dicularly when at rest. It is of a blackish color, its abdomen bright yellow of 

 a paler or deeper tint, its legs pale, and the whole surface of its body and limbs 

 is dusted over with a white meal-like powder, except the antennge, which are 

 black, thread-like, about two-thirds the length of the body and comjwsed of 

 about twenty-eight joints, whereof the basal is the thickest, and the second is 

 longer than those which succeed, which are all of equal size and short cylin- 

 drical, their length and breadth equal, the apical oval. The head is elevated 

 upon a short neck in the living specimen and is wider than long, round and flat- 

 tened in front; the palpi rather long; five-jointed, the apical joint oval, and as 

 long as the two which precede it taken together; the labial palpi three-jointed, 

 their apical joint large, and egg-shaped. Legs of medium size, the hind pair 

 longest, and about equalling the body in length; feet five-jointed, the basal joint 

 cylindric and forming nearly half of their whole length; the third joint short- 

 est, the tips ending in two minute hooks. The wings are broad, rounded at 

 their ends, with six veins proceeding from the base, whereof the second or rih- 

 vein gives off two branches, one at the end of the anastamosing veinlet near the 

 base and the other forward of the middle, both of these branches forking rather 

 beyond their middle, thus making ten veins which end in the apical and inner 

 margin. The first of these branches forward of its furcation sends an anasta- 

 mosing veinlet inward to the next or mid-vein, which, with the rib-vein, are 

 obviously thicker and more robust than the other veins. The hind wings have 

 five veins ending in their margin, whereof the second and third unite near the 

 middle of the wing. 



Having occupied so much space in describing the aphis-lions 

 and their habits, we present but a brief sketch of the habits of 

 the remaining destroyers of the plant-lice, reserving a description 

 of their species for a future occasion. 



Equal to, or even surpassing the aphis-lions, in the havoc which 

 they make among colonies of plant-lice and the numbers which 

 they devour, are the insects popularly called lady-bugs or lady- 

 birds. These pertain to the family CocciNELLiDiE, in the Order 

 Coleoptera. The eggs of these insects — smooth, oval, and of a 

 bright yellow color — may frequently be met with upon the under 

 surface of leaves, placed in a cluster of twenty — thirty or forty, 

 in contact with each other, and gummed by one end to the leaf. 

 These hatch within a few days, a small blackish larva coming 

 from them, which is slender bodied, tapering posteriorly and with 

 six legs anteriorly. It walks about with much animation, and 



