42 



THE YOUNG NATUEALIST. 



greenish fuscus insect, with broad head, and 

 broad thighs to the fore legs. Not rare in 

 ponds and ditches. 



3. Nepina. — Contains two species, re- 

 presenting two families — Lanaim linearis, a 

 long, slender creature, and Ne_pa cinsrea (the 

 water scorpion). Both have the front tarsi 

 bent for holding prey, and both have two 

 long linear appendages at the extremity of 

 the body. They are found on the mud at 

 the bottom of stagnant ponds. 



4. NoTONECTiNA consists of two families, 

 the first composed of the two boat-flies 

 [Notonccta glauca and 7naculata), and the 

 second of Plea minutissima, something like a 

 small, dumpy boat-fly, one line long. 



5. CoRixiNA contains the remainder of 

 the aquatic species. 



Sub-Order II. 



HOMOPTERA. 



These insects were divided by Westwood 

 into three sections, which is perhaps the 

 simplest way of dividing them, as follow : — 



1. Trimera, with tarsi three-jointed. 



2. Dimera, ,, two- 



3. Monomera, ,, three 



I will revCiSe these for two reasons : first, 

 because Westwood placed the Monomera 

 next to the water-bugs just passed ; and 

 secondly, because the Dimera approach 

 best the next order. 



1. Monomera. — This section contains 

 the Coccida or scale insects, in which the 

 female is simply an animated scale. 



2. Dimera consists of the Psyllidce or 

 jumping plant-lice, the Apidcs or true plant- 

 lice, and Aleyrodidce, one white species being 

 sometimes very numerous on cabbages. 



3. Trimera. — Th;s section contains the 

 families Cicadidce and Cereopidce, the first 

 represented in Britain only by the rare 

 Cicada angelica which I have taken in the 

 New Forest, and the second by the cuckoo- 

 spit insect or froghopper {Aphvophoria spu- 

 maria) and allied forms. 



BRITISH MOTHS. 



By John E. Robson. 



CHEIMATOBIA BRUMATA. 

 The Wintey Moth. 

 At this season of the year, when nearly 

 all insects are snugly esconsed in their 

 hiding-places, sleeping away the time till 

 warmer weather shall rouse them to activity, 

 the little fragile-looking winter moth may 

 be found flitting about the leafless hedges, 

 heedless of the cold, not driven into con- 

 cealment by snow, and able to bear several 

 degrees of frost with impunity. The actual 

 amount of cold it can bear does not seem 

 very satisfactorily known, but I have had it 

 emerge in the house in a cold room where 

 water standing beside the breeding cage 

 was frozen over. An interesting observa- 

 tion was also recorded in Vol. I., p. 60, of 

 the species pairing in the open air at a time 

 when the ground was covered with snow 

 and the ice was bearing. The collector who 

 would take C. hrumata at large must muflle 

 himself up in overcoat and wrappers, and 

 he may well wonder how so small an animal 

 can resist what would be fatal to himself if 

 exposed for any length of time. The male 

 will be found flitting about the leafless 

 hedges from November to the middle of 

 January, and may be captured at dusk. 

 Later in the evening it may be taken abun- 

 dantly at lamp-posts, lighted windows, &c. 

 The female must be looked for after eleven 

 o'clock, when she will be found sitting on 

 the leafless twigs, generally at the extreme 

 end of a shoot. Nor is its power of resisting 

 cold the only interesting part of its history. 

 It is one of our most destructive insects, 

 and so abundantly prolific that all efforts to 

 rid our orchards and shrubberies of it have 

 proved unavailing. The female being nearly 

 wingless is quite unable to fly, and this 

 would seem to make it easy to get rid of it. 

 In some places a sticky compound is daubed 

 on the trunks of trees, and as the females 

 crawl up they are captured and destroyed. 



