On Synthetic Types in Insects. 601 



which are wingless, as their name implies, are very much 

 like in form and habits the wingless true lice, which seem 

 by the close resemblance many species bear to young 

 CimicidsB to be but a family removed from them; being 

 thus low apterous Hemiptera, as fleas are but apterous 

 flies. 



The Formicidce among Hymenoptera have in the Neu- 

 roptera their well-known analogues, the Termites or White 

 Ants. Like the true ants these interesting insects rear 

 nests of sand or clay, or the colonies are concealed be- 

 neath various objects, or in decayed trees and roots. There 

 are also a differentiation of the individual, a partition of 

 labor, and wonderful instincts as in ants. Those characters 

 which place the TermilidcB the highest in their sub-order, 

 are just those which make them so much like Hymen- 

 optera. Thus in the small occiput, the large epicranium 

 which occupies the largest part of the head, and in the 

 general arrangement of the small mouth-parts, this family 

 differs widely from other Neuroptera. Though the pro- 

 thorax is large, yet the middle region of the body is 

 massed together more than usual. Like the ants, the 

 costal nervures of the wings are well developed, while 

 those occupying the hinder portions of the wings are ob- 

 solete. Indeed, both the true and white ants do not fly 

 much, and that for the most part when swarming. 



Upon review, therefore, we find seven out of the eight 

 well-established families of the Neuroptera sustaining 

 this synthetic relation with each of the six other sub- 

 orders ; that the strongest analogy exists between the 

 Neuroptera and Lepidoptera, where we find two fam- 

 ilies of the former sub-order analogous to two lepi- 

 dopterous families, the Bombyces and Tineae ; and that 

 the less apparent analogy exists between the neuropterous 

 • Termes and the hymenopterous Formica;. 



This synthetic relation is confined to no one natural 



JOURNAL B. S. N. H. 76 



