rp- 



226 STUDIBS IN AUSTRALIAN NEUROPTERA, lii., 



fused to leave the cocoon, T took a pair of fine forceps, seized it 

 uickly just below each projecting eye, anil so lifted it out bodily. 

 This (operation may flatten one or both eyes, but it will not 

 damage the wings. 



Piipje of Chrysopa A wei-e extracted fi'oin cocoons seven or 

 eight days old. The wings were pale whitish, and appeared at 

 the first glance to be in every way suited for my purpose. But, 

 under a lens, it was seen that the imaginal wings were, in nearly 

 all cases, strongly rucked or crumpled within the wing-sheath, so 

 that the tracheation could not be properly followed out. Hence 

 the whole of this batch of valuable larvje and pupi« had to be 

 sacrificed, in order to discover, firstly, how long the larva re- 

 mained in the cocoon before pupating, and secondly, how long it 

 was before rucking of the imaginal wing in the pupal wing-sheath 

 began to occur. In the course of these trials, I was fortunate in 

 obtaining a photograph of the hind wing of a pupa of this species 

 which T determined as being nearly three days old (the cocoon 

 was over six days old, and the average duration of larval life, 

 bef(jre pupation occurred, had been determined as three and a 

 half days in the case of this species). In this photograph the 

 rucking had just begun (Plate xi., fig. 3), and this condition 

 helped to' elucidate a knotty question of venation, as I have ex- 

 plained below on p. 240. 



By this time I had hopes that my ditticulties were at an end, 

 as I now had left over only material of the two smallest species, 

 ijhrijsupa B and C . sujnata. The larva; of Chrymjm B fed up at 

 a great rate, and spun up well ahead of those of C. xignatjt^ 

 althovigh most of the eggs of both species hatched at about the 

 same time. The weather was very hot and dry, and this may 

 have been orte cause of their activity. One larva actually spini 

 its cocoon on the ei(/hfh day after hatching from the egg, and 

 emerged as an imago six days later! I found the cocoons and 

 pupie of Chrysopa B most difficult tf» handle, since they were so 

 small and delicate. However, one was extracted just after the 

 act of pupation (the larval skin being even not fully cast oft"). 

 This was killed by being dropped into a tube of water, in which 



