98 APPLE LEAVES — MEALY-WINGED FLY. 



of these families the preseat is most nearly related in much th-e 

 same doubt in which it has hitherto been. 



Westwood's mealt-wino {Aleuronia Westwoodii) measures one-tenth of an 

 inch to the tips of its wings which project a third of their length heyond the tip of 

 the abdomen, against the sides of which they are held almost perpendicularly when 

 at rest. It is of a blackish color, its abdomen bright yellow of a paler or deeper 

 tint, its legs pale, and the whole surface of its body and limbs is dusted over with a 

 white meal -like powder, except the antennse, which are black, fl.ri ad-like, about 

 two-thirds the length of the body and composed of about twenty-eight joints, whereof 

 the basal is the thickest, and the second is 1( nger than those which succeed, which 

 are all of equal size and short cylindrical, their length and breadth equal, the apical 

 oval. The head is elevated upon a short neck in the living specimen and is wider 

 than long, round and fattened in front; the palpi rather long, five-jointed, the apical 

 joint oval, and as long as the two which precede it taken together ; the labial palpi 

 three jointed, their apical joint large and egg-shaped. Legs of medium size, the 

 hind pair longest and about equalling the body in length; feet five-jointed, the basal 

 joint cylindric and forming nearly half of their whole length, the third joint shortest, 

 the tips ending in two minute hooks. The wings are broad, rounded at their ends, 

 with six veins proceeding from the base, whereof the second or rib-vein gives ofi" two 

 hranches, one at the end of the anastamosing veinlet near the base and the. other for- 

 ward of the middle, both of these branches forking rather beyond their middle, thus 

 making ten veins which end in the apical and inner margin. The first of these 

 branches forward of its furcation sends an anastamosing veinlet inwaid to the next or 

 mid-vein, which, with the rib-vein, are obviously thicker and more robust than the 

 other veins. The hind wings have five vtins ending in their margin, whereof the 

 second and third unite near the middle of the wing. 



Having occupied so much space in describing the aphis-lions 

 and their habits, we present but a brief sketch of the habits of 

 tlie remaining destroyers of the plant-lice, reserving a description 

 of their species for a future occasion. 



Equal to, or even surpassing the aphis-lions, in the havoc which 

 they make among colonies of plant-lice and the numbers which 

 they devour, are the insects popularly called lady-bugs or lady- 

 birds. These pertain to the Family CocciNELLiDiE, in the Order 

 CoLEopTEKA. The eggs of these insects — smooth, oval, and of a 

 bright yellow color — may frequently be met with upon the under 

 surface of leaves, placed in a cluster of twenty, thirty or forty, in 

 contact with each other, and gummed by one end to the leaf. 

 These hatch within a few days, a small blackish larva coming 

 from them, which is slender bodied, tapering posteriorly and with 

 six legs anteriorly. It walks about with much animation, and 



