802 [Assembly 
of these families the present is most nearly related in much the 
same doubt in which it has hitherto been. 
■Westwood’s mealy-winq (Jlleuronia Westwoodii ) measures one-tenth of an 
inch to the tips of its wings which project a third of their length beyond 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 antennae, which are black, thiead-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 flattened 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 cyliudric 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 off two 
branches, 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 veins ending in their margin, whereof the 
aecond 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 
the 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 Coccinellidae, in the Order 
Coleoptera. 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 
