8 



The Naturalist. 



some of the species attain large size, and are remarkable for tlie 

 development of their musical organs. 



The second British family of the section is the Cecropida, which 

 differs in having the antennae three-jointed. It includes the well- 

 known frog-hopper, developed from the cuckoo-spit insect {Tettigonia 

 Sjpumaria) and other allied forms. 



The second section, Dimeea, includes the Psyllidce, or jumping plant- 

 lice j the ApJuda, or green-fly ; and the Aleyrodes, or snow-flies. 

 These live by sucking the juices of plants, and some of them are very 

 injurious to our growing crops. 



The third section (Monomera), contains the coccus, or scale insects, 

 of which we have some British species, and of which the cochineal 

 and lac insects are exotic examples. The males have two wings, but 

 the females are destitute of wings or other organs, and appear like a 

 scale upon the stem of the plant they infest. The second section 

 should be placed last, as they form a connection with the jumping 

 Orthoptera. 



Ord. 2, Orthopteea. — That section or sub-order, which I place 

 first, is the Saltatoria, or jumpers ; and the second, Cursoria, or 

 runners ; the first connect them with the jumping Homoptera, and 

 the latter, with the running Coleoptera. 



The Saltatoria comprise the following families : — 



1. Aclietida^ or crickets, of which the house cricket {AcJieta 



domestica), and the mole cricket ( Gryllotalpa vulgaris) are 

 examples. 



2. GryllidcB, or grasshoppers. 



3. Locustidcd^ or locusts. 



The second sub-order, the Cursoria, include the cockroaches (Blatta) 

 and the earwigs ; the latter being sometimes ranked as a distinct 

 order, under the name of Euplexoptera. 



Finishing the Orthoptera with the earwig, brings us to the next-of- 

 kin, which appears to me to be the Staphjl'midce, in Ord. 3, Coleoptera ; 

 yet to suggest an arrangement of this order of insects with the 

 Staphylinidae at the head, I am afraid would be considered a very 

 revolutionary measure by coleopterists. I am not sufficiently well 

 versed in beetles to say what arrangement should follow, but the 

 Silphida might come next, to which they are undoubtedly allied, from 

 thence we might pass on to the types of the order, the Garabidae. 



Ord. 4, Neuroptera, — The passage from the Coleoptera to the 

 J^europtera is not so easy a matter, but as it is impossible to make an 



