54 AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGY. 



anterior pair of feet at its anterior extremity ; anterior feet ad- 

 vanced, very conspicuous, eheliferous, the basal joint very much 

 elongated ; wings reticulated, deflected. 



Obs. A very small, but singular and natural -roup of insects, 

 allied to Mantis, and also to Raphidia. Linne placed a species, 

 which he described under the name now adopted as generic, in 

 the genus Raphidia, and Lamarck assents to an alliance with that 

 genus, by placing Mantispa immediately next to Raphidia, in 

 his system. Latreille, who formed the genus, and most other 

 authors, refer it to the same family with Mantis and Spectrum ; 

 indeed, in the llegne Animal, it is considered a mere sub-genus 

 of Mantis. 



But if we adhere rigidly to the characters of the order Hemip- 

 tera,* in which the superior wings are stated to be coriaceous or 

 of a different consistence from the inferior pair, the genus Man- 

 tispa,* notwithstanding its acknowledged affinity with Mantis, will 

 be altogether excluded from that order. In construction, num- 

 ber, and consistence of the wings, from which the characters of 

 these grand divisions are derived, it is beyond a doubt a A< urop- 

 ter&us genus, and we adopt Lamarck's arrangement in this re- 

 spect. It is distinguished from all the other genera of this order, 

 by the particular form of the anterior feet. 



These insects are not quiescent in the nymph state, or that 

 condition which corresponds to the chrysalis state of the butter- 

 fly, but they remain active, as in the larva, 



Mantispa brunnea. — Specific character. Light brown ; 

 antenna) fuscous, light brown at the extremity ; wings with a 

 very broad, brown margin. 



Mantispa brunnea nobis, Long's Expedition to the sources of 

 St. Peters' river, vol. ii. p. 309. 



Desc. — Male. Antennas short : posterior and inferior orbits, 

 yellow: thorax, first segment obtusely wrinkled or undulated 

 transversely; anterior margin black, sub-margin yellow; base 

 black, with a yellow, transverse, angulated line : scutel yellow : 

 metathorax yellow on the posterior edge : pleura bilineate, with 

 yellow : wings with a broad, light brown costal margin and tip : 



• : There is confusion here : Mantis belongs to the order Orthoptera, 

 for which Hemiptera has been substituted by a probably clerical error. 

 — Lec. 



