MECOPTERA 179 



is a luxuriant undergrowth of herbaceous plants. They feed on dead or 

 injured insects and upon fruits; it appears that they rarely if ever cap- 

 ture living prey. 



The females lay their eggs in crevices in the earth. The larvae are 

 caterpillar-like in form; they have three pairs of true legs and eight 

 pairs of abdominal prolegs ; and the body is armed with prominent spines 



Fig. 314. — Larva of Panorpa rufescens, first instar. (After Felt.) 



(Fig. 314); the larvae are carnivorous. The transformation takes place 

 in a cell in the ground. 



Boreus. — This genus includes small Mecoptera, our species measuring 

 from jV to I of an inch in length, which are often found on snow in 

 winter. The wings of the female are vestigial or wanting; those of the 

 male, imperfectly developed. The ocelli are wanting. The female has a 

 long, protruding ovipositor, which in some species is nearly as long as the 

 abdomen. The larva differs from that of Panorpa in lacking the abdom- 

 inal prolegs. The pupa state is passed in an earthen cell in the ground. 

 Four American species have been described, two from the East and two 

 from the West. 



BUtacus. — Insects belonging to this genus have long, narrow wings, 

 long legs, and a slender abdomen. They resemble crane-flies very closely 

 when on the wing, but can be distinguished by the 

 presence of two pairs of wings. They are almost as 

 common as Panorpa; and, like the scorpion-flies, are 

 found among rank herbage growing on the banks of 

 shaded streams and in damp woods where there is a 

 luxuriant undergrowth of herbaceous plants. When at 

 rest they hang suspended, by their front legs, from 

 some support (Fig. 315). The members of this genus 

 capture and eat living insects. They are enabled to 

 capture their prey by means of their curiously modi- 

 fied tarsi, the last two segments of which are armed 

 with teeth, and the last segment can be folded back 

 against the next to the last segment. In this way there 

 fig. 31s. — Natural is formed an efficient grasping organ. It is an interest- 

 (From Felt? Bittacus - ing fact that, while in other predacious insects the fore 

 legs are the chief organs of prehension, in Bittacus 

 the hind legs are used for this purpose fully as often as the others, espe- 

 cially when the Bittacus is hanging suspended by its fore legs and cap- 

 tures an insect that comes within reach of it. 



Nine North American species of Bittacus have been described. 



