HEMEROBID^. 



609 



Hemerobid^ Leach. The Aphis Lions and Lace-winged 

 flies, which are iuckuled in this familj', have long, slender, cy- 

 lindrical bodies. The wings are large, with numerous veins, 

 the posterior ones with no anal space ; the ocelli are usually 

 absent, and the tarsi are five-jointed. 



The larviB vary considerably in form, but are usually flat- 

 tened or short, thick, ovate and fleshy, with large siclcle-like 

 mandibles ; "the under side of these organs is deeply grooved, 

 and the maxillae, which are nearly equal to 

 them in size, and of a similar form, play in 

 this groove." (Westwood.) With these they 

 pierce the bodies of their victims and suck 

 out their juices. The sides of the abdominal 

 segments are fringed and have lateral tuber- 

 cles bearing a thin tuft of radiating hairs. 



The body of the pupa is more cylindrical, 

 being curved, and with the limbs and wings 

 folded to the breast. The larva spins a silken 

 cocoon, and the pupa is inactive. 



In Aleuronia the body is covered with a 

 whitish powder ; the eyes are reniform, and 

 the antennae are moniliform. The wings are 

 ciliated ; the longitudinal veins are few in 

 number, while the transverse ones are almost 

 absent. Aleuronia Westivoodii of Fitch is a 

 very small insect, being black, covered with a whitish pow- 

 der, with a pale abdomen and feet. The singular genus 

 Coniopteryx, whose larva somewhat resembles a Smynthurus, 

 one of the Th^'sauura, showing the close relationship of 

 these aberrant forms, is characterized by Hagen as being 

 powdered with whitish scales, having globose eyes and monili- 

 form antennae. The wings are not ciliated, the longitudinal 

 veins are few, and there are some transverse veins. The pos- 

 terior wings of the males are small. Coniopteryx vicina Hagen 

 is black, covered with grayish powder, and the wings have 

 eight longitudinal veins, all joined together by a single trans- 

 verse vein. It is about one-seventh of an inch in length. 

 Haliday (in Westwood's Introduction) thinks that the larva of 

 the European C. tineiformis preys on plant-lice. When about 



Fig. 596. 



