232 NATURAL HISTORY OF ARTHROPODS. 



head is nearly as long as the mesothorax, the eyes are sometimes reddish, and there is 

 a strong transverse vein behind the middle, separating the membrane of the wing- 

 covers. Like Nersia, it is bright green early in the season, but later becomes paler, 

 or even bleached straw-yellow. It inhabits Cuba, San Domingo, and southern Florida; 

 measures half an inch to the tip of the wing-covers, and lives upon reedy plants near 

 water. 



Monopsis taUda is a similar, but smaller form, which inhabits the same regions, 

 and nearly the same kind of places, as the preceding. It is also pale green, and has a 

 very short, more quadrangular head. Several allied forms inhabit Mexico and Central 

 America, and there are others in Brazil which are larger, and that have very long and 

 narrow heads. 



We now reach the sub-family Derbida, a group of moderate extent ; but one which 

 comprehends some of the most beautiful and delicate forms of the entire order. Here 

 the head is generally produced forwards ; sometimes extremely compressed, and then 

 with the sides prominently keeled. Such a contracted cranium offers but very limited 

 space for the accommodation of the brain ; and the reduced size of the principal ganglia 

 in these delicate creatures may account for the geneial feebleness of their motions. 

 The wing-covers are long and slender, a little widened at tip, furnished with few apical 

 areoles, and give the insect an appearance much like that of the slender-winged 

 pyralid moths, or the neuropterous Setodes. They may also be recognized by the 

 form of the antennas, which in some are divided into three stout and long branches, 

 while in others the base is surmounted by a long, thick shaft. Their legs are simjjle, 

 and with extremely short spines on the tip of the hind-shanks. 



Otioeerus coquebertii, is a gay, lemon-yellow or croam-colored species, with a broad 

 stripe on the side of the face and wavy red forked lines on the wing-covers ; the head, 



as seen from the side, is of the form of a 

 ploughshare, with the little brown eyes stand- 

 ing out like beads. The antennae have three 

 bent appendages resembling strips of tape. 

 It measures about one-thii-d of an inch to the 

 tip of wing-covers, lives upon the leaves of 

 grape-vines, oaks, and hickory, in July, Au- 

 gust, and September, and is distributed over 



Fig. 306. — otioeerus coquebertii. . . ... 



a wide area, being found in the vicinity oi 

 the White Mountains, in New Hampshire, also in northern New York and Illinois, 

 and extends from thence to central Texas, and east to Georgia. A rose-colored 

 species, with the markings of the head, thorax, and veins of the wing-covers carmine, 

 is the O. degeerii. It is of about the same size as the preceding, and inhabits similar 

 places at nearly the same time of the year. 



Anotia is a still more gauze-winged, smaller form, of the utmost delicacy. It 

 differs from the foregoing genus in having the second joint of the antennae long and 

 blade-like, not branched, but notched at the tip, and into this the bristle is inserted. 

 The A. westiooodii is pale yellow or whitish, hr.s the wing-covers irregularly clouded 

 and spotted with light brown, and the veins of the apical jiart of the costal area 

 bright red. It lives on the spice bush and willows, during August and September, in 

 the Middle States ; and upon grass and willows in northern New York. 



Tropical and sub-tropical America is rich in genera and species of this group ; many 

 of which resemble moths and Phryganidie, and some of the brown species imitate 



