NEUROPTERA. 



iliers, as they are termed by Smeathman, with their warlike 

 aspect, act as "sentinels and soldiers, making their appearance 

 when the nest is invaded, attacking the intruders and inciting 

 the laborers to work. The more peaceful and laborious 

 workers are estimated to be one hundred times more numerous 

 than the soldiers." "They collect food, form covered ways, 

 guard the males and females and take care of the eggs and 

 young." (Westwood.) While most of the species burrow in 

 wood, or under ground, others, as in the Termes fatale Linn. 

 (T. bellicosus Smeathman) , raise conical hillocks of remarkable 

 strength and firmness, often ten or twelve feet high. After 

 impregnation the females, as in the case of the ants, lose their 

 wings. They are then conducted into the interior of the nest 

 by the workers. Here the body of the female gradually be- 

 comes enormously distended with eggs, being over two inches 

 iu length, and it is known to lay 80,000 in the course of a day. 

 The pupa of Termes hicifugns, a French species, was found 

 by Latreille in the spring, with four white tubercles, or wing- 

 pads. Other pupre are described and figured by Westwood, 

 which by their long wing-pads, prolonged beyond the abdomen, 

 closely resemble the Homopterous adult Gercopidce, . Fossil 

 Termites occur in the coal formation of Germany. 



EMBID^E liurnieister. These are small insects, forming a 

 connecting link between the white ants and Psocns ; they are 

 characterized by the linear depressed body, with the head free 

 from the thorax, the wings equal in size, with few veins, and 

 triarticulate tarsi. The larvae are found under stones and are 

 protected by a cocoon which they renew at each moulting of 

 the skin. (Oerstaecker.) Embia frariyni Westwood is found 

 in Egypt. 



A species of OJi/ntJni / the only genus of this family found 

 in North America, is stated by Ilagen to occur in Cuba. 



Leach. These minute insects would be easily mis- 

 taken for Aphides, both the wingless as well as the winged 

 individuals. Their bodies are oval, the head free from the 

 prothorax, which is small and partially concealed by the wings. 

 The wings are unequal in size, and with few veins, thus depart- 



