NEUIIOPTERA. 
573 
wings, the males make their escape from the posterior extremity of their cocoons backwards, and then 
seek the females, which are much larger than them. Ueaumur observed two small points like ocelli 
at that part of the head which corresponds with the mouth. I have discovered in the head of the male 
of the Coccus of the elm ten small similar points, as well as tw'o balancers on the sides of the thorax. 
Geoffroy states that the females have at the extremity of the body four white filaments, which appear 
only on pressing the body of the insect. 
Doi thez observed upon the Euphorbia Characias a species which appears to differ in several respects 
both of structure and habits from the other species, and which determined M. Bose to form this insect 
into a distinct genus, named Dorthesia, The antennae have nine joints, much longer and slenderer in 
the male than in the female; the latter continues to live and to be active for some time after depositing 
her eggs ; the male has the extremity of the body furnished with a thick brush of long white threads : 
! hence this insect is nearer allied to the Aphides than to the Cocci. 
1! The Cocci appear to injure the trees, by causing by their punctures a too abundant overflowing of 
i ■ the sap. Hence they require the attention of those persons who cultivate peaches, oranges, figs, and 
I olives. Some species attack the roots of plants ; some are precious on account of the splendid scarlet 
I colour they furnish for the dyer. Further researches on these insects might detect others equally 
i useful in this respect. 
Geoffroy divided these insects, which are called by the French Galle insectes, or, by contraction, Gallitisectes, 
into two genera, CJtermes and Coccus; the latter was called by Kdaumur, Progall-insecte. 
The Mealy-bug, C. adonidum, is somewhat of a rosy hue, with the body covered with a white mealy powder ; 
the wings and anal setae of the male are of the latter colour. The female has the sides of the body furnished with 
i appendages, of which the two posterior are longer, and form a kind of tail. The female envelopes its eggs in a 
white cottony secretion, which serves them as a nest. It is naturalised in our hothouses, where it does much 
mischief. 
The female of Coccus Cacti [the Cochineal insect of commerce], is of a dark brown colour, covered with a white 
down, flat beneath, convex above, margined, with the segments rather distinct, but becoming obliterated at the 
period of oviposition. The male is of a dark red, with white wings. It is cultivated in Mexico upon a species of 
Cactus or Opuntia, and is distinguished by the name of Mesteque, or fine cochineal, from another closely allied 
species, smaller and more cottony, called the wild cochineal. It is celebrated for the crimson dye that it pro- 
duces ; it also furnishes carmine. This production is one of the chief riches of Mexico. 
Coccus polonicus [or the Scarlet Grain of Poland], was also employed in Poland as a considerable object of com- 
merce, before the introduction of the Coccus Cacti as a dye. It lives upon the roots of Scleranthus perennis, and 
some other plants. The colour produced from this species is almost equal to that of the Coccus'Cacti. 
Coccas IZicis, Linn., which lives upon a small kind of oak in the south of Europe, and of which the female 
reaches the size of a pea, was employed before the introduction of cochineal. It is also still employed in 
medicine. 
A species from the East Indies produces gum lac, and another is employed in China for the manufacture of 
wax tapers. 
A male Coccus, from Java, remarkable for having the antennae composed of about 22 joints, moniliform, and 
very pilose, having two thick and nearly coriaceous wings, composes the genus MonopMeba of Leach. 
[These insects have recently been divided into several other genera by Illiger, Bouch^, Burmeister, &c.] 
THE EIGHTH ORDER OF INSECTS,— 
THE NEUROPTERA (Odonata, and the major part of Synistata, Fabr.),— 
Is clistinguislied from the preceding orders by the fore-wings being membranous, generally 
naked, transparent, and similar to the two posterior in respect to their consistence and uses ; 
from the 10th and following, by the number of these organs as well as by the structm’e of the 
mouth, which is fitted for mastication, or furnished with true mandibles and maxillae, that 
is, formed on the ordinary plan [for biting], a character which separates this order from the 
tenth, or that of the Lepidoptera, of which the fore-wings are, moreover, mealy. In the 
Neuroptera these wings have their surface furnished with a very fine net-w'ork ; the inferior 
being mostly as large as the superior, or sometimes larger, sometimes narrower, but longer. 
The maxillae and the inferior piece of the lower lip, or the mentum, has never a tubular 
