into two Classes. cxciii 



states : the head is oblong, the eyes oval, lateral, distant, and 

 placed very forward in the head ; the ocelli are three, and pla- 

 ced between the eyes ; the antennoe are moderately long, moni- 

 liform, and have six or seven very distinct joints : the head, 

 which is lengthened in front, is bent back towards the prester- 

 num, and is produced into somewhat of an obtuse rostrum ; all 

 the parts of the mouth are present, the mandibles being corne- 

 ous, lengthened, acute, very slender, incurved at the apex, broad 

 and somewhat swollen at the base ; the palpi exhibit no peculi- 

 arities, and there is not the least trace of the part I have called 

 "galea," and which is so conspicuous, various, and important 

 in the Coleoptera and Orthoptera : the prothorax is largely de- 

 veloped, receiving the head; the meso- and metathorax are sol- 

 dered together: the wings are four, membranous, almost veinless, 

 exactly alike, and fringed with long silky hairs; the legs are mo- 

 derately long and simple, the profemora sometimes incrassated, 

 the tarsi 2-jointed, rather swollen and without claws. These in- 

 sects are minute, and infest in countless thousands the blossoms 

 of Dahlias, Fuchsias, and other cultivated plants, often entirely 

 destroying their beauty : one species is particularly injurious to 

 wheat in some seasons, but its ravages fortunately are not common. 

 They are so abundant throughout the summer, that it is almost 

 impossible to shake a flower of any kind over a sheet of white 

 paper, without procuring them : they rarely fly, and their flight 

 is laborious and of brief duration. 



Obs. 1. — Mr. Haliday, whose invaluable and highly philosophical 

 papers on Entomology, published in the ' Entomological Magazine,' 

 stamp him as one of the first, if not the very first of living entomolo- 

 gists, regards the Linneau genus Thrips as a group of insects equiva- 

 lent in its distinctness to Coleoptera, Lepidoptera, Diptera, &c, and 

 assigns it the name of Thysanoptera : yet Mr. Walker, although no one 

 is so thoroughly acquainted with Mr. Haliday's views, has associated 

 these insects with the Homopterous Hemiptera. To differ from two 

 authors so justly celebrated, would almost be tantamount to declaring 

 myself in error, were it not that their views are so dissimilar; this 

 circumstance may serve as an apology for differing from either, and 

 therefore equally so for differing from both. It may at the same time 

 be allowable to state, that although the observations of Haliday threw 

 the first light, and a flood of light it was, on the structure and classifi- 

 cation of these minute creatures, yet his materials were so limited, and 



