APHIS- AND ANT-LIONS. 



87 



Family Sialidae. Body somewhat flattened, of moderate length; 

 the antenna? long and slender, sometimes serrated or pectinated; 

 the wings are large, net-veined, the hinder pair with the anal space 

 folded, while the tarsi are 5- jointed. 



To this family belongs the great Corydalis cornuius Linn., whose 

 wings expand six inches. The jaws of the male are enormously 

 enlarged, being nearly an inch long, and can scarcely be used for 

 taking food. Its larva lives under stones in brooks, and is used for 

 bait under the name of " hellgrammite." In Chauliodes pectinieornis 

 Linn., a much smaller insect, the antennae are pectinated. Species 

 of Raphidia, which have a very long narrow prothorax, inhabit the 

 Pacific coast. 



Family Hemerobidse. The body is slender, cylindrical, wdth large 

 net-veined wings, the hinder ones with no anal space. The larvae 

 are peculiar iii having large sickle-shaped mandibles which have a 

 groove beneath, in which the maxilke slide back and forth; with 

 these they can pierce the bodies of small insects and suck their 



FIG. 77.- Lace-wing fly, side and top view ; eggs and larva. Enlarged twice. 



blood, without moving the mandibles on which the victim is im- 

 paled. The larvae of Chrysopa (Fig. 77) and Hemerobia are called 

 Aphis-lions, and destroy great numbers of those pests. The ant-lion 

 is the larva of Myrmeleoa. It makes a pit in tine sand, lying at the 



FIG. 78. Myrmeleon, and a, its larva, the ant-lion. 



bottom with its jaws wide open, ready to seize any luckless insect 

 which may fall in. Mantispa (Figs. 79, 80) is noteworthy from the 

 strange habits of its larva, which passes through two stages, the 



