204 



The Orders of Insects 



history. The feelers, however, are as long as the body, while the 

 cellules at the tip of the wing are irregular in outline. The hind- 

 wings are broad at the base, like those of libellulid dragonflies, 

 which the Ascalaphids resemble in appearance and habits ; their 

 long, clubbed feelers, of course, distinguish them at a glance from 

 the Odonata. They do not range so far north as the Myrmeleonida», 

 being confined in Europe to the Mediterranean region (129 ^. ). 



Nemopteridae. — The Nemopteridis form a small but peculiar 

 family, readily distinguished by their remarkable hindwings, 

 which are much longer and narrower than the front pair, and more 

 than twice as long as the body. The head is produced into a short 

 beak ; the feelers are long, slender, and not clubbed at the tip ; the 

 jaws both of the imago and the larva resemble those of the Myr- 

 meleonid^. The larva is of most striking appearance, possessing 



an elongate neck, like that 

 of the snake-flies in an 

 exaggerated degree. The 

 distribution of the 

 Nemopteridae is remark- 

 able ; they are found in 

 Southern Europe, 

 Northern Africa, Western 

 and Central Asia, and 

 South America (Chili). 



Mantispid ae. — The 

 Mantispida are readily dis- 

 tinguished from all other 

 Neuroptera by their elon- 

 gate prothorax and rap- 

 torial forelegs, which give 

 them an appearance like 

 that of the Orthopterous 

 family Mantida. From 

 those insects, however, the 

 Mantispidas differ in the 

 close similarity of their fore and hind wings, and in the total absence 

 of cercopods to the hind-body. The eggs are stalked, and the active 

 campodeiform larva is hatched in autumn ; it spends the winter with- 

 out feeding, and in the spring makes its way into the egg-cocoon 

 of a hunting-spider or the nest of the wasp, where it devours the 

 developing spiders or grubs, becoming changed into a fat, eruciform 

 larva with stumpy legs (67). When full-grown it spins a cocoon 

 and pupates within the dried larva skin, so that the mantispid on 

 emergence has to break through its own puparium and cocoon, as 

 well as through the spider's egg-bag or the wasp's nest. The 

 Mantispid^ are a small family, but are distributed in all tropical 

 countries, ranging north into southern Europe. 



Hemerobiidae. —The HemerobUda or Lacewing-flies have four 



Fig. 113. — Antlion Fly {Myrmeleon Jor>ui- 

 caleo, Linn.), and its grub, South 

 Europe. Natural size. 



