N E P 
N E P 
place to the reading of the Scriptures, next the councils and 
ancient fathers, and then thefchoolmen ; excluding thofe 
neotericks, both Jefuits and Puritans, who are known to 
be meddlers in matters of ftate and monarchy. The King's 
Lett, to Vice-Ch. of Oxf. 1622.—We are not to be guided 
either by the mifreports of fome ancients, or the capricios 
of one or two neoterichs. Grew. 
NEOTER'IC, or Neoterical, adj. Modern; novel; 
late.—I advife you not to negleft old authors; for, though 
we be come as it were to the meridian of truth, yet there 
be many neoterical commentators, and felf-conceited 
writers, that eclipfe her in many things, and go from 
obfeurum to obfeurius. Howell's Lett. 
NEOT'TIA, f. in botany. See Ophrys and Saty- 
RlUJ/f. 
NE'OU, f. The African name of a tree, found by Adan- 
fop at Senegal, which Juffieu refers to the Petrocarya 5 
fee that article. 
NEOU'NDAH, a town of the kingdom of Birmah, on 
the Irawaddy, which role out of the decay of Pagham, to 
which it nearly joins. 
NEOUNBENG'ZEICK, a town of Ava, on the Ira- 
vvaddy: fifteen miles north of Prome. 
NEP, f. [nepeta, Lat.] The herb catmint. See Neteta. 
•—The dog, when he is ftomach-fick, can go right to his 
proper grals, the cat to her nep, the goat to his hemlock. 
Up. Hall's Sejeft Thoughts. 
NE'PA, J'. the Water-Scorpion; in entomology, a 
genus of hemipterous infefts. Generic characters— 
Snout inflected, antenna; fliort; wings four, crofs-com- 
plicate, coriaceous on the upper part; fore-feet cheliform, 
or refembling the claws of a crab, the reft formed for 
walking. 
This genus is aquatic, inhabiting ftagnant waters, and 
preying on the fmaller water-infe&s, &c. They dw'ell in 
the water, both in the ftate of larva and chryfalids : the 
eggs are alfo depofited in that element; they are of an 
oblong fhape, and have at one extremity two or more 
vibrifeas, the only part of them which is feen, the reft 
being funk and concealed in the ftalk of a bulrulh, or 
other water-plant. Thefe plants may be removed, and 
placed in water near the naturalift, who may thus have 
an opportunity of feeing them hatched and coming forth 
animated larvae immediately under his eye. The water- 
fcorpions, when thus excluded from the eggs, remain for 
fome time in the ftate of worms, in the place of their 
nativity. When they arrive at their full fize, and are 
snetamorphofed into complete infefts, they are from one 
to three inches in length, and nearly half as broad. The 
antennae appear in the ufual place of the fore legs; they 
are armed with a forceps, well adapted to the rapacious 
purpofes to which they are applied. The nepae are of all 
animals the moft tyrannical; they deftroy, like wolves 
among fheep, twenty times as many as their hunger re¬ 
quires. If one of them is placed in a bafon of water with 
thirty or forty worms of the libellula tribe, each as large 
as itfelf, it will deftroy them all in a very ftiort fpace, 
getting on their backs, and piercing them through the 
body with its roftrum. Thefe animals, though they live 
upon the water by day, are capable of taking long flights 
from one pool to another in quell of food: this they are 
probably often obliged to attempt, from the fiercenefs of 
their manners, by which the infetts in their vicinity mull 
be foon deftroyed. Though fo formidable to other crea¬ 
tures, they are neverthelefs haunted by a little loufe, 
which probably repays the injuries which the water- 
fcorpion fo frequently commits upon others. 
There are fourteen fpecies included in this genus, 
which are divided into feftions, according as they have 
no lip, or a fliort lip, or one that is projecting and round. 
Three of the fpecies are common in this country. 
I. Antennae palmate, and without lip. 
x. Nepa grandis: chefnut-brown, variegated with yel¬ 
low. This infeCl, which very far furpafles in fize all the 
Vol. XVI. No. 1148. 
713 
European animals of the genus, is a native of Surinam and 
other parts of South-America, often meafuring more than 
three inches in length. Its colour is a dull yellowilh 
brown, with a few darker-yellow fhades or variegations -. 
the under-wings are of a femi-tranfparent white colour, 
and the abdomen is terminated by a ftiort tubular procefs. 
Madame Merian reprefents this fpecies, in her Surinam 
Infefts, as preying on tadpoles and young frogs. It is re- 
prefented, of the natural fize, on the annexed Engraving, 
at fig. 1. 
2. Nepa annulata: tail unarmed, roundifti, pale brown ; 
fore-ftianks pale, and annulate with brown. It is found 
in Coromandel. 
3. Nepa ruftica:.tail unarmed, brown; the lateral and 
hind-margin of the thorax, and fore-margin of the upper 
wings whitilh. This is likewife found in Coromandel. 
4. Nepafufca: tail ending in two briftles ; fcutel rug¬ 
ged ; wing fnowy. It inhabits the Eaft Indies. The 
body of this fpecies is brown; and the tail is as long as 
the body. 
5. Nepa grofla: tail ending in two briftles, longer than 
the body; body ovate. It inhabits Tranquebar. 
6. Nepa cinerea, the common water-fcorpion : tail end¬ 
ing in two briftles, half as long as the body ; body ovate 
and brown. It inhabits this country, and many parts of 
Europe, chiefly on ftagnant waters, meafuring about an inch 
in length, and appearing, when the wings are clofed, of a 
dull brownifti colour; but when the wings are expanded the 
body above appears of a bright red colour, with a longi¬ 
tudinal band down the middle; and the lower wings, which 
are of a tranfparent white, are decorated with red veins; 
from the tail proceeds a tubular bifid procefs or ftyle, 
nearly of the length of the body, and which appears fingie 
on a general view, the two valves of which it confifts 
being generally applied clofe to each other throughout 
their length. The animal is flow of motion, and is often 
found creeping about the ihallow parts of ponds. In 
May, when the weather is warm and favourable, it depofits 
its eggs on the foft furface of the mud at the bottom of 
the water. They are of a lingular Ihape, refembling fome 
of the crowned feeds, having an oval body, and an upper 
part furrounded by feven radiating procefles or curved 
fpines; the young, when firft hatched, are not more than 
the eighth of an inch in length. This infeCl flies only 
by night, when it wanders about the fields in the neigh¬ 
bourhood of its native waters. The larvae and pupae 
differ in appearance from the complete infeCt in having 
only the rudiments of wings, and being of a paler or 
yellower colour. 
The nervous fyftem of this infeCt confifts of three gan¬ 
glia. The firft, which fupplies the place of the brain, is 
fituated in the head : it is formed of two approximated 
lobes, which are pyriform, and touch each other at their 
bafe. Their fummits are direded obliquely forward to¬ 
wards the eyes, in which they terminate, and thus anfwer 
to the optic nerves by their anterior extremities. The 
middle and anterior part of thefe lobes alfo produce fome 
filaments for the parts of the mouth. Pofteriorly, the 
brain detaches two cords, which embrace the cefophagus 
as they pafs below it. They unite at the origin of the 
breaft in a tetragonal ganglion: each of the angles of 
which produces or receives feveral nerves. The anterior 
receives the two cords which come from the brain; the 
pofterior, the two which are the continuation of the 
medullary cord. Each lateral angle produces a fafciculus, 
compofed of four nerves, which aredire&ed to the mufcles 
of the breaft and anterior feet: one of them enters the 
cavity of the coxa. The two nerves produced by the 
pofterior angle of the fecond ganglion proceed in a parallel 
direction backward. Having arrived in the breaft above 
the horny appendix, to which the mufcles of the coxae of 
the intermediate and pofterior feet are attached, they 
fwell into a large round ganglion, confiderably more 
voluminous than the brain. A vaft number of nerves 
are detached from the edges of this ganglion, like folar 
S T rays. 
