Packard.] 



INSECTS AS MIMICS. 



285 



supposed to be a stem form of all the insects, and which is a 

 remarkable synthetic type, combining the characters of the 

 six-footed insects and the M^-riopods. 



The two families of May flies and dragon flies do not have 

 any species with marked analogies to other insects. In an- 



FlG. 222. 



Adult of the Ant Lion. 



other fam'ly, however, of which the adult of the ant lion 

 (Fig. 222) is an example, we have the Ascalaphus, which 

 was regarded by Scopoli as a Papilio, the wings being large 

 and broad, and the antennai knobbed. The neuropterous 

 Mantispa (Fig. 223), in its fore 

 legs adapted for seizing its prey, 

 mimics the orthopterous Mantis. 

 The Panorpa (Fig. 224), the type 

 of another family of net-veined 

 insects, assumes the shape of the 

 crane flies (Tipula). Bittacus has 

 its analogue in the fly named 

 Bittacomorpha. The large lacc- 

 winged fly called Polystoechotes 

 has some features reminding us of the Hepialus (Fig. 225). 

 The Cdddis flics imitate the Tineid moths so closely that 

 excellent entomologists have confounded them. The species 

 of Psocus mimic the Aphides so closely that they are often 



2d 



Mantispa. 



