254 PREDACIOUS AND PARASITIC 



As we glance backwards, we see clearly that everything seems 

 to point definitely in the same direction, and to assert most posi- 

 tively that it is light which strews the earth with life in its myriad 

 forms ; that it is light which sustains and regulates the various 

 processes and phenomena of the vegetable kingdom, and also, 

 indirectly if not directly, of the animal kingdom ; that it is the 

 alteration of the quality or quantity of light which ushers in a 

 crowd of evil conditions ; and finally that it is the entire absence 

 of light which forbids the existence of life, and turns a garden of 

 paradise into a wilderness of death. 



lpre&aciou6 & paraeitic Enemiee of Hpbibee 



(incluMna a Stut)^ of 1b)?per^lParasites), 



By H. C. a. Vine. Plates XII. & XIII. 



DIFFERING widely in almost every detail of form and 

 structure from the Aphidivorous Insects which have been 

 considered in the previous sections, some of the Neurop- 

 TERA resemble them in their carnivorous habits^ the chief nutri- 

 ment of the larvae of three famiHes at least consisting of the juices 

 of Aphides, which, pierced by their tremendous mandibles, are 

 almost immediately reduced to an empty skin. Insect for insect, 

 these larvae are probably greater destroyers of Aphides than any 

 of the Syrphidae or the Coccinellidae, although the comparative 

 rarity with which they occur no doubt renders their aggregate 

 effect much less than that of either of the latter families. 



Out of the many thousand species of insects indigenous in 

 Britain, not more than seven hundred are claimed for this very 

 beautiful order, even by those naturalists who include within it 

 some of the following groups : — Mallophaga (Bird lice), Thripidce 

 (Thrips, Black fly), Thysa?iura (Bristle-tails), Colletnbola (Spring- 

 tails), and Trichoptera (Caddis flies) ; all of which, by difl"erent 

 hands, have been placed in other orders. Apart from these, less 

 than three hundred and fifty species of the Neuroptera can 

 be said with certainty to be natives of Britain, and many of them 

 are very rarely met with. 



