SECRETARY'S REPORT. 131 



the metamorphoses or changes through wliich it has j)asse(l. 

 Under this system the simplest and most natural arrangement 

 comprises seven Orders, which are popularly distinguished as : 

 1st. Beetles ; 2d. Cockroaches, crickets, grassho])pcrs, <fcc. ; 

 3d. Dragonflies, darning-needles, may-flies, etc. ; 4tii. Ants, 

 wasps, bees, Arc; 5th. Butterflies and moths or "millers;" 

 6th. Bugs, treehoppcrs, p-lant-lice, &c. ; 7th. Flics, gnats, 

 ii'C. The first four of these Orders are placed in a section 

 called 3Iandibul((ta, or chewing insects, as they are provided 

 with strong and powerful ji>ws or mandibles for cutting and 

 masticating coar;^e substances. The other three are called 

 Haustellula or sucking-insects because they are furnished with 

 a hollow or tubular proboscis or sucking apparatus in place of 

 jaws. In almost all works on this subject tlie beetles have been 

 placed at the head of the list and we shall follow this system 

 for convenience, although the discoveries of some modern 

 students seem to point out other Orders as more highly 

 organized, and accordingly better fitted to rank as the first. 

 These theories of naturalists, however, are not of material 

 importance to a paper of this kind where we propose to deal 

 only with established facts. 



The Coleuplera, or Order of Beetles is so called from the 

 Greek work ko/eoj4eros, signifying a sheathed wing, which was 

 applied to these msects on account of their having a pair of 

 soft membranous wings folding under a hard cover. This 

 cover, with but few unimportant exceptions, is in two parts ; 

 hinged at their bases to the thorax of the insect and meeting in 

 a straight line down the back. These covers are called the 

 e//jtra and are frequently marked with impressed lines, or 

 punctured, or in some cases covered with fine hairs or scales of 

 various colors in irregular patterns, those on one wing-cover 

 being exactly copied but in a reverse position upon the other so 

 as to produce a symmetrical figure, when the wings are folded 

 and the elytra closed. 



The first insects we meet with in this Order belong to the 

 family Ciciiidelklcc, so called from the Latin cicinde/a, signifying 

 a glow-worm, or shining insect. Tliis name was applied to 

 them on account of their brilliant colors and polished metallic 

 lubtre reflecting the sun's rays, they are sometimes called 

 " sparklers " from the same circumstance, but more commonly 



