ENTOMOLOGY IN OUTLINE — NEUROPTERA. 59 



This description will hardly applj^ to members of several of the sub- 

 families, in which both sexes retain some powers of locomotion through 

 life and do not become fixed, nor form a scale. A peculiarity of this 

 family, too, is that while they belong to the four-winged insects, the 

 perfect males have but one pair of wings, a pair of small hooks, known 

 as halteres or poisers, taking the place of the other pair, and, unlike 

 other members of this order, the males undergo a complete meta- 

 morphosis. 



As the Coccida' are treated of in extenso in another publication 

 issued by the Commission of Horticulture, under the title of "The 

 Coccidae of California," we will dismiss this family here, and refer our 

 readers thereto for a full account of them. 



Order NEUROPTERA. 



(The Nerve-winged Insects.) 



In the old classification, this order included all insects with four more 

 or less transparent wings, and these veined or netted. The lace-winged 

 fly and the dragon-fly were marked types of the order. In all members 

 the mouth parts are formed for biting. Aside from the winged resem- 

 blance, however, there were such marked differences in the diverse mem- 

 bers of this order that several new orders have been constructed from 

 it, and it is divided into from two to five minor orders, according to the 

 importance attached by authorities to the development of different 

 organs, and especially in relation to different methods of transforma- 

 tion. This order, or group of orders, is not of great importance to us, 

 for aside from some beneficial insects which we find in it, the greater 

 portion are neither beneficial nor injurious; we may therefore consider 

 its members together under the old style. 



In this order ])oth pairs of wings are usually of the same size and of 

 a similar membranous texture, and traversed with nervures, which are 

 usually united by a number of smaller ones, so that the wings present 

 a net-like appearance. In some of the members the metamorphosis is 

 complete and in others incomplete, and upon this fact the order has 

 been divided. The Neuroptera proper are divided into seven families: 

 Mantispida^, Raphidiida;, Sialida-, Coniopterygida?, Myrmeleonida, 

 Hemerobiidte, and Chrysopidte. 



The family Mantispidse is so named from the fact that the insects 

 strongly resemble the praying mantis in the order Hemiptera. They 

 are much smaller insects, however, and their possession of four strongly 

 marked membranous wings gives them a place in the order under dis- 

 cussion. They have strong, grasping forelegs and are predaceous, 

 living upon other insects. Only one member of this family is known in 

 California. Symphofiis signafa^ but it is not frequently met with, 



