•37G 
Xew York State Aqricvltural Society. 
horizontally backward, and almost equaling the insect’s body in length; 
there it is merely a pair of small hooks directed upward and curving for¬ 
ward over the end of the back. Other differences, equally important, 
merit to be noticed. The head, instead of being prominent, and fully 
exposed as it is in Panorpa, Bittacus and Boreus, is retracted, and 
almost totally hid under the fore part of the thorax. The eyes, 
which are protuberant and subglobular in those genera, are here but 
little elevated above the surface, and are long, narrow, and curved, or 
kidney-shaped. The three glassy simple eyes, which are so conspicu¬ 
ous in the two first named genera are here wholly wanting. The 
antennae, instead of being long and thread-like, or like a fine hair, are 
shortish and thick. The first segment of the thorax, instead of being 
a ring or hoop forming a kind of neck to the head, is flattened, form¬ 
ing a semi-circular plate. The body is long, narrow and flattened, 
not slender and cylindrical. The wings are not shining and glass¬ 
like, and are not at all ornamented with spots and bands as they are 
in the other genera. And the small semi-circular lobe on the inner 
margin of the fore wings, near the base, is a singular appendage, 
whereby this species is at once distinguished from all others. 
Keaders intelligent upon this subject will be aware from what has 
now been stated, that this insect differs widely from those with which 
it is associated. In this family PanokpidvE, however, each of the 
groups are very distinct. Though there is a beautiful similarity to the 
species of each genus, the few genera composing this family are each 
remarkably different from all the others. They hence form a very 
heterogeneous assemblage, as will appear from a cursory review of them. 
In the genus Panorpa , or the scorpion-flies, the body and its mem¬ 
bers are of ordinary aspect, with nothing peculiar that is perceptible 
to the eye, except the end of the body in the males, the last joint 
being very large and egg-shaped, and the two joints preceding it 
remarkably small, appearing as if atrophied, this structure giving 
free motion to the tip of the body, enabling it to turn in every direc¬ 
tion like the tail of a scorpion. 
In Bittacus , the body, wings and legs are remarkably long and 
slender, giving these flies a striking resemblance to the crane-flies or 
daddy-long-legs of the genus Tipula in the order Dipt era. 
Boreus contains very diminutive insects, scarcely one fourth the 
dimensions of their kindred. They are destitute of wings, and move 
by feeble skips on the surface of the snow in winter. The genus has 
only three species, one in Europe, long known, and two, which I 
have described, in this country 
