Terebbantia.- 



-INSECTS.- 



-Neuroptera. 



247 



Bide of the leaves. Passerini describes the Thnps as 

 depositing in the month of April four or five eggs on 

 each bud, and as the insects breed to the end of 

 autnmn, their numbers become excessive. 



Dr. Harris speaks of the peach-trees in the United 

 States suffering at times severely from the attacks of 

 a species of Thrips. They are found beneath the 

 leaves in little hollows, caused by their irritating 

 punctures. 



The following arrangement of the order is derived 

 from Haliday's latest views of the group, published 

 at the end of the Catalogue of Homopterous Insects 

 in the British Museum (part iv. ; 1852). Four well 

 filled plates accompany this, which contain figures and 

 dissections, and metamorphoses of the various genera. 



Mr. Haliday thus divides them ;^ 



Family I.— TUBULIFERA. 



Abdomen furnished with a tubular segment in both 

 sexes, the female without a borer. Antennte eight- 

 jointed. The insects walk slowly, and do not leap. 



Genus Idolothrips contains three species, natives 

 of Australia. They are furnished with three ocelli, 

 the anterior of which is distant from the others. One 

 of these (/. spectrum) is the largest of the group, being 

 four lines and more long. It is figured on PI. 5, fig. 10. 



Genus Phlosotkrips ; nine species are described, 

 some of which live in flowers, and others in clusters 

 under bark. The ocelli are equidistant. 



Family II.— TEBEBRANTIA. 



The females are fumished with a borer, which is 

 compressed, sharp, and four-valved ; it is concealed in 

 a ventral cut of the last segment of the abdomen. 



The antennje are generally nine-jointed. The insects 

 of this family leap. 



In the first tribe (Stenoptera), so called from the 

 slenderness of the wings, the borer of the female 19 

 curved inwards. 



The genus HcUolhripi contains one species (H. 

 hcBmorrhoulalis), which is brown, and has tlie tip of 

 body reddish. This is the insect often called by 

 nurserymen the "Thrip." It is most destructive in 

 hot-houses, attacking the leaves of plants. 



The genus Sericothrips, so called from its downy 

 body, contains a very active species (S. Slaphi/limis), 

 often met with in the flowers of the Whin. 



In the genus Thrips the body is smoothish. Mr. 

 Haliday subdivides this into five sub-genera. One of 

 these (^Aptinothrips) has not the slightest trace of 

 wings. It was long before he found the male of this 

 insect, and was almost induced to think that, like 

 Cynips, the insect might be unisexual. At length, 

 at the season of hay-harvest, he discovered the male, 

 though it is so excessively rare that there is perhaps 

 but one to several hundreds of the female. 



The Limothrips cerealius and its ravages have been 

 alluded to above. 



Of Thrips proper, twenty-three species are described 

 by Mr. Haliday; one of these {T. tirticai) he describes 

 as being very partial to yellow flowers, such as the 

 Buttercups, Eschscholtzia, &c. 



In the second tribe (^Coleoptrata) the hemelytra are 

 of the length of the abdomen, and are blunt and cori- 

 aceous ; hence the name. The borer of the female is 

 recurved. 



The genus Melanthrips, so called from the deep 

 black colour of the species, has the antenna; with nine 

 distinct joints. In the genus ^olothrips there are 

 five joints. 



Order I.— NEUROPTERA. 



This is a rather large and important order of four- 

 winged insects, containing the voracious Dragon-flies, 

 with their aquatic larvoe ; the curious Ant-lions, the 

 pitfalls of whose larvae are so interesting ; the Lace- 

 winged flies, whose larvse are so useful in reducing the 

 numbers of plant lice; the strange Scorpion flies, and 

 other families. The following are the leading charac- 

 ters of the order: — The mouth is furnished with trans- 

 versely movable jaws. The wings, which are four in 

 number, are generally large and beautifully netted with 

 numerous areolets (hence the name Neuroptera) ; the 

 hind pair are very seldom folded, and generally similar 

 to the first pair. The larva has six jointed legs, and 

 the pupa is various in the different families. In some 

 it is quiescent, and has the limbs folded over the breast ; 

 in others it is active, and resembles more or less nearly 

 the perfect insect. These insects have no sting, and 

 the body is generally long and slender, and of a soft 

 consistence. Mr. Westwood, taking the transforma- 

 tions as the ground of the distributions of these insects, 

 forms them into two primary divisions : — 



Div. 1. — BioMOKPiionc Neukopteka, — This 



division contains the Neuroptera with an active pupa, 

 which undergo what Mr. Macleay has called a subsemi- 

 complete metamorphosis. To this belong the Psociche 

 and Termitida;, the larvEE of which are terrestrial, and 

 the LibellulUlcE, Ephemeridce, and Perlula, which are 

 aquatic in their preparatory states. 



Div. 2.— Subnecrcmorphotic Neuroptera.^ 

 This second division contains those Neuroptera which 

 have quiescent and incomplete pupa;, acquiring, how- 

 ever, the power of locomotion shortly before they assume 

 the perfect state. This division contains the families 

 of the Ant-lions (Myrmeleonida:), Lace-winged flies 

 (Hemerobiida-), and the SialidcF,Panorpida or Scoi-pion 

 flies, Raphidiidcp, and Maidixpida'. 



Family— TERMITID^ {White Atita). 



The White ants have been formed by some authors 

 into a separate sub-order called Isoptcra, from the 

 wings being of equal size. They form a strange 

 family which has been lately monographed by Dr. 

 Hagen of Kbnigsberg. Each species of these insects is 



