Dusty-wings

(Family Coniopterygidae.)

The insects of this family are the smallest of the Neuroptera. Their wings are covered with whitish powder. In Europe their larvae have been found to prey upon scale insects and to spin a double cocoon when full grown and ready to transform.

In this country we have only two species, namely Aleuronia westwoodii and Coniopteryx vicina, and the life history of neither has been described. Mr. Banks, however, has found the larvae of the Aleuronia upon the leaves of maple trees at Washington, where it was probably feeding upon the young of the cottony cushion scale (Pulvinaria innumerabilis) or upon plant-lice found commonly upon the leaves. This larva resembles a small larva of one of the lace-winged flies, but has not the long jaws characteristic of those creatures.