48 NEW ZEALAND NEUROPTERA. 



maxilla co-adapted to form spear-like organs that are 

 suctorial in function. Pupa similar in general form to 

 the imago, enclosed in a cocoon " (Sharp). 



" The Hemerobiidae are an extremely varied assemblage 

 of Neuroptera ; the perfect insects of the various sub- 

 families are very different in appearance ; but the family 

 as a whole is naturally defined by the very peculiar 

 structure of the mouth organs of the larvae. These insects 

 have, in fact, a suctorial mouth in their early life, and one 

 of the ordinary biting type in adult life. 



" This is a very unusual condition, being the reverse of 

 what we find in the Lepidoptera and some other of the 

 large orders, where the mouth is mandibulate in the 

 young, and suctorial in the adult. The suctorial condition 

 is in the Hemerobiidae chiefly due to modification of the 

 mandibles ; but this is never the case in the insects that 

 have a suctorial mouth in the imaginal instar. Nearly all 

 the Hemerobiidae are terrestrial insects in all their stages ; 

 a small number of them are, to a certain extent, am- 

 phibious in the larval life, whilst one or two genera 

 possess truly aquatic larvae. The metamorphosis is, so 

 far as the changes of external form are concerned, quite 

 complete. There are no wingless forms in the adult 

 stage." * 



The classification of the Hemerobiida, given by Hagen 

 and generally adopted, recognises seven sub-families, of 

 which only two are at present known to occur in New 

 Zealand. 



Sub-family I.— MYRMELEONIDES, or ANT-LIONS. 



Antennae short, clubbed, the apical space of the wing with regular oblong 



cellules. 



Genus MYRMELEON, Linne (1748). 



Antennae short, clavate or sub-clavate. Abdomen long and slender. 

 Distribution. — Widely spread in warm latitudes. 



MYRMELEON ACUTUS. 



Myrmeleon acutus, Walker, Cat. Neuroptera Brit. 

 Mus., p. 377 (1853). M. novce-zealandice, Colenso, Trans.. 

 N. Z. Inst., vol. 17, p. 156 (1885). 



(Plate I., fig 7.) 



* Sharp, loc. cit. 453. 



