HEMIPTERA. 435 



C. cacti, L. (The Cochineal Insect.) Female of a deep brown, covered 

 with white dust, flat beneath, convex above, and bordered; the annul! are 

 tolerably distinct at first. The male is of a deep red, with white wings. 



This Insect is cultivated at Mexico, on a species of Opuntia, and is cele- 

 brated for the crimson dye it furnishes, which, by being combined with 

 the solution of tin in nitro-muriatic acid, produces a scarlet. It is also from 

 this Insect that we obtain carmine. It is one of the richest productions of 

 Mexico. 



ORDER VIII. 

 NEUROPTERA(l). 



The Neuroptera are distinguished from the three preceding or- 

 ders by their two upper wings, which are membranous, generally 

 naked, diaphanous, and similar to the under ones, in texture and 

 properties. They are distinguished from the eleventh arid twelfth 

 by the number of these organs, as well as by their mouth, fitted for 

 mastication or furnished with mandibles and true maxillae, or in other 

 words organized as usual, a character which also removes this order 

 from the tenth or that of the Lepidoptera, where, besides, the four 

 wings are farinaceous. The surface of these wings in the Neurop- 

 tera is finely reticulated, and the under ones are most commonly as 

 large as those above them, but sometimes wider, and sometimes nar- 

 rower and longer. Their maxillae and the inferior portion of their 

 labrum or the mentum are never tubular. The abdomen is destitute 

 of a sting and rarely furnished with an ovipositor. 



Their antennae are usually setaceous, and composed of numerous 

 joints. They have two or three ocelli. The trunk is formed of 

 three segments, intimately united in a single body, distinct from the 

 abdomen, and bearing the six legsj the first of these segments is 

 usually very short, and in the form of a collar. The number of 

 joints in the tarsi varies. The body is usually elongated, and with 

 rather soft or but slightly squamous teguments; the abdomen is al- 

 ways sessile. Many of these Insects are carnivorous in their first 

 state and in their last. 



(1) Nerve-winged 





