576 ON THE ORDERS 



j4leyrodes of Latreille, the Tinea proletella of Linnjeus, 

 and the Phalene cuUciforme of GeofFroy . The history of this 

 minute insect is the subject of one of Reaumur's most 

 interesting Memoir es; and when we learn that it under- 

 goes an obtect 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 physio- 

 logist should have considered it to be Lepidopterous, as 

 that Latreille, reasoning from its articulated rostrum, should 

 have pronounced it to be Homopterous. We are only 

 astonished 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 Reaumur. 

 It is thus that these great naturalists are so often right 

 and wrong at the same time with respect to the same ani- 

 mal, 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 positive observations and 

 rejected their negative inferences. 



That the Homoptera are directly in conjunction with 

 the true Hemiptera, or Heteroptera of Latreille, I believe 

 no one will be inchned to dispute. At least this affinity 

 cannot be disputed without a distortion of some of the 

 most evident facts in Natural History, being accompanied 

 by an utter disregard for the authority of all entomologi- 

 cal writers. The transition is effected through the medi- 

 um of the Notoriectidte and other HydrocoriscE of Latreille, 

 which coincide with the Homopterous insects in the small 

 developement of their antennae, and conical rostrum, and 

 with the true Hemiptera in their rostrum being frontal, 

 their elytra coriaceous, and their body generally depressed. 

 It would at present be very blameable in me to pretend to 



