130 NATtUAL AURANGEMENl OF INSECTS. 



on this point. " The immediate means of transition from 

 homopterous insects to the lepidopterous, is probably 

 exemplified in the genus Aleyrodes of LatreilJe, the 

 Tinea proletella of Linnseus, and the Phalene cnHciforme 

 of Geoffroy. The history of this minute insect is the sub- 

 ject of one of Reaumur's most interesting Memoires; and 

 when we learn that it undergoes an obtect" (or com- 

 plete) "metamorphosis; that in its pupa state it is inactive, 

 and in its adult is covered with a farinaceous powder ; 

 we are as little surprised that this great physiologist 

 should have considered it to be lepidopterous, as that 

 Latreille, reasoning from its articulated rostrum, shoidd 

 have pronounced it to be homopterous. We are only asto- 

 nished that the latter should have adopted any arrange- 

 ment which would lead us to fancy that he believed his 

 observations on Aleyrodes contradicted those of Reau- 

 mur." It is thus, as our author truly observes, "that the 

 greatest naturalists, in every department of nature, are 

 often right and wrong at the same time, with respect to 

 the same animal; and that a person in search of natural 

 affinities, has generally reason to conclude himself to be 

 perfectly correct, when he has combined all their posi- 

 tive observations, and rejected their negative inferences." 

 The farinaceous wings of the Flatidce, subsequently no- 

 ticed, induced our author to pronounce them as " mani- 

 festly bearing a distant affinity to certain extreme Lepi- 

 doptera." These insects, indeed, so completely resemble 

 moths, that they may be justly called the moth cicadas. 



(121.) The primary groups under which we shall 

 now arrange the cicadas, wiU be considered in the light 

 of families, and may be thus concisely enumerated: — 

 1. The true Cicadidce, or singing insects ; so named from 

 their musical powers. — 2. The Flatidce, or moth-like 

 cicadas, having their wings generally covered with a 

 white farinaceous powder. — 3. The Centronotidce, or 

 spined cicadas, remarkable for their small size, and the 

 spines upon their bodies. — 4. The Notonectidce, or water 

 cicadas, ^-ulgarly called boat flies: these are few ii 

 number, and, as their name denotes, are aquatic. The 



