5S0 



TNSECTA. 



T. lucifugus and flavicollis inhabit the south of France, living in the interior of trees. The exotic species have 

 been but imperfectly characterised, Linnaeus having confounded several under the name of T.fatale. 



Embia, Latr., comprises several insects allied to Termes, butwith the head larger than the thorax ; tarsi 3-jointed ; 

 wings scarcely extending beyond the abdomen. [See my monograph on this exotic genus, published in Transac- 

 tions of the Linncean Society of London. ,] 



The other Terrnitines have the tarsi 2-jointed ; the labial palpi indistinct, or very short ; the antennae 

 about 10-jointed ; the first segment of the thorax very small, and the hind wings smaller than the fore 

 ones. They form the genus 



Psocus, Latr. (Termes, Hemerobius, Fabr.), 

 These are insects with a short, soft, and gibbose body ; the head large ; the antennae setaceous ; wings roof-like, 

 and but slightly veined. They are very active, and live on the bark of trees. We generally find in 

 books of collections of plants, the P. pulsatorius, of a whitish colour, and which has been believed 

 to produce the slight noise like the ticking of a clock, often heard in houses, whence its specific 

 name. 



5. The Perlides, which have three joints in the tarsi, the mandibles almost always 

 membranous and small, with the hind wings broader than the fore wings, and folded 

 at the inner edge. They consist of the genus 



Perla, Geoff.,— 

 In which the body is elongate, narrow, and flattened ; the head rather large; antennae setaceous ; 

 prothorax nearly square; the wings shutting horizontally on the body ; and the abdomen generally 

 terminated by two setae. Their larvae are aquatic, and are stated [by Latreille, but erroneously,] to reside in cases 

 which they bear about with them. [They are naked, and resemble the imago, but are wingless.] 

 Perla bicaudata, Linn. (Phryganea), is a rather common species, found on the margin of rivers. 

 Nemoura, Latr., differs from Perla in its corneous mandibles, and in the abdomen not being terminated by setae. 

 [See the monograph of this group, published by Mr. Newman in the Magazine of Natural History.] 



Fig. 114. — Atropos 



1'uU ittiri'i-. 



THE THIRD FAMILY OF THE NEUROPTERA,— 

 The Plicipennes, Latr., — 



Are destitute of mandibles, and their hind wings are generally broader than the superior, and folded 

 throughout their whole length. They comprise the genus 



Phryganea, Linn. 



They have at the first sight the appearance of small Phaloenae, andDe Geer observed that the internal 

 structure of their larvae has great resemblance to that of caterpillars. In the systems of Kirby and 

 Leach, they form the order Trichoptera, which is connected with the Lepidoptera by means of the 

 Tineae. But as we naturally pass from the Plicipennes to the Perlides, we should be compelled to ter- 

 minate the Neuroptera with Libellula and Ephemera, of which the structure and habits greatly differ 

 from those of the Hymenoptera, which succeeds them in this system. The Libellulae and other adjacent 

 Neuroptera, appear to us nearest allied to the Orthoptera. 



The head of the Plicipennes is small, with two long setaceous and porrected antennae ; the eyes are 

 round and prominent ; two ocelli, placed in the forehead ; a conical or bent labrum ; four palpi, the 

 maxillary pair being often very long, filiform, or nearly setaceous, 5-jointed, and the labial 3-jointed ; 

 the maxillae and lower lip membranous and united ; the body is generally very hairy, and forms with 

 the wings an elongated triangle, as in many Noctuae or Pyralides ; the prothorax is small ; the wings are 

 simply veined, silken, or hirsute in many, and always roof-like. The legs are long, furnished with 

 small spines, with five joints to all the tarsi. These insects chiefly fly in the evening or night, often 

 entering our houses, attracted by the light, and being extremely active in all their movements. They 

 emit a disagreeable smell when touched. The smaller species fly in troops over water. Many females 

 carry their eggs united into a pacquet at the posterior extremity of the abdomen. Their larvae [which 

 are the well-known bait of the angler, called Caddice, or Cad-bait,] reside, like the larvae of some moths, 

 in cases generally cylindrical, covered with various substances they collect in the water, such as bits of 

 straw, leaves, sticks, sand, and even small shells, often symmetrically arranged, and which they affix to 

 their cases by silken threads, spun from internal reservoirs similar to those of caterpillars ; the interior 

 of this habitation forms a tube, which the larva bears about with it, protruding the anterior part 

 of its body when it creeps forward, never quitting it of its own accord, and immediately re-entering it if 

 forced out of it. 



