248 SYSTEMATIC ZOOLOGY. 



up the young. The soldiers have enormous heads, and 

 protect the others. The termites are miners, and make 

 their burrows beneath the earth and inside of dead wood. 

 They avoid the light, and where they cannot otherwise 

 make their way they build covered ways, sometimes for 

 hundreds of feet. They feed upon dead wood, and will 

 sometimes utterly eat out the inside of the timbers of a 

 house, leaving posts and joists but a mere shell. They 

 are comparatively rare in colder climates, although they 

 occur as far north as New Hampshire, but in the tropics 

 they become a terrible pest. The queen (fig. 71, e) is kept 

 a prisoner in the nest, is fed by the workers, and develops 

 so many eggs that her abdomen is swollen out of all pro- 

 portion to the head and thorax. As the eggs escape they 

 are cared for by the workers. 



ORDER IV. NEUROPTERA. 



These forms have the wings much as in the Pseudoneu- 

 roptera, the mouth-parts for biting are much reduced, but 

 they have a complete metamorphosis. The majority of 

 these forms are inconspicuous, and their existence is hardly 

 recognized except by naturalists. Here belong the ' dob- 

 sons/ or hellgrammites, larva? of a large insect, which are 

 used as bait by anglers. Here, too, belong the ant-lions, 

 which build little pitfalls for the ants on which they feed. 

 Last to be mentioned are the caddis-flies or case-flies, the 

 aquatic larvae of which protect themselves by building 

 cases of stones, sticks, etc., in which they hide and which 

 they carry about with them in their search for food. 

 These caddis-flies, in the adult stage, have the mouth- 

 parts much reduced, and are supposed to represent pretty 

 closely the ancestors of the butterflies and moths (Lepi- 

 doptera) . 



