EMBIIDAE 



351 



by means of the parasitic two-winged flies that infest birds. 

 The writer has recorded 1 a case in which a specimen of one of 

 these bird-flies captured on the wing was found to have some 

 Mallophaga attached to it. 



"We should perhaps point out that these Mallophaga, though 

 called bird-lice, have nothing to do with the true lice which are 

 so frequently found with them, and that live by sucking the 

 blood of their hosts. It would in fact be better to drop the 

 name of bird-lice altogether, and call the Mallophaga biting lice. 

 Trichodectes latus, according to this method, would be known as 

 the biting louse of the dog, the true or sucking louse of which 

 animal is Haematopinus piliferus, and belongs to the anoplurous 

 division of Hemiptera. 



Fam. II. Embiidae. 



Elongate feeble Insects ; with small prothorax, elongate meso- and 

 meta - thorax, which 

 may either bear wings 

 or be without them. 

 In the former case 

 these organs are not 

 caducous, are deli- 

 cately membranous, 

 and all of one consist- 

 ence, with three or 

 four indefinite longi- 

 tudinal nervures and 



FIG. 222. Oligotoma michaeli. (After 

 M'Lachlau.) 



a few cross -veinlets. 



The development is 



incompletely known. The individuals do not form organised 



societies. 



The Embiidae are one of the smallest families of Insects; 

 not more than twenty species are known from all parts of the 

 world, and it is probable that only a few hundred actually exist. 

 They are small and feeble Insects of unattractive appearance, 

 and shrivel so much after death as to render it difficult to 

 ascertain their characters. They require a warm climate. Hence 

 1 P. ent. Soc. London, 1890, p. xxx. 



