114 



THE DRAGON FLY. 



138. Diplax Elisa. 



The Libellulidoe, or family of Dragon flies, and the Ephemer- 

 idse, or May flies (Fig. 140); are the most characteristic of the 

 Neuroptera, or veiny-winged insects. Tliis group is a most 



interesting one to tlie 

 systeniatist, as it is 

 composed of so many 

 heterogeneous forms 

 which it is almost 

 ijupossible to classify 

 in our rigid and at 

 present necessarily 

 artificial systems. 

 We divide them into 

 fiimilies and sub-fam- 

 ilies, genera and sub- 

 genera, species and varieties, but there is an endless shifting 

 of characters in these groups. The difl'ereut groups would seem 

 well limited after studying certain 

 forms, when to the systematist's sor- 

 row, here comes .a creature, perhaps 

 mimicking an ant, or aphis, or other 

 sort of bug, or even a butterfly, and 

 for which they would be readily mis- 

 taken by the uninitiated. Bibliogra- 

 phers have gone mad over books that 

 could not be classified. Imagine the despair of an insect-hunter 

 and entomophile, as he sits down to 

 his box of dried neuroptera. He seeks 

 for a true ueuropter in the white ant 

 before him, but its very form and 

 habits summon up a swarm of true 

 ants; and then the little wingless book 

 louse (Atropos, Fig. 141) scampering 

 irrevei'ently over the musty pages of 

 h i s Systema Naturae, reminds him 

 of that closest friend of man — Pedic- 

 ulus vestimenti. Again, his studies 

 lead him to that gorgeous inhabitant 

 of the South, the butterfly-like Ascalaphus, with its resplendent 

 wings, and slender, knobbed antenna? so much like those of 

 butterflies, and visions of these beautiful insects fill his mind's 



J- 7: 



139. Nannophya bella. 



140. May Fly. 



