CHAPTER X. 



THE NEUROPTERA. 



All the varieties of metamorphosis may be observed amongst 

 the Nairoptera. Some of these insects never have a period of 

 inactivity, and do not undergo greater transformations than the 

 OrtJwptera. But others have to submit to two metamorphoses 

 before they become perfect, and the transformations are as 

 sharply defined as they are in the Lcpidoptcra. These last undergo 

 complete, and those just mentioned pass through incomplete, 

 metamorphoses. 



Other Nenroptera remain in a condition of inaction for a very 

 short time, and their nymphs lose their activity and undergo a 

 rapid metamorphosis, as it were, at the very moment when the 

 adult insects escape from the pupa case. It is very remarkable 

 that such varied metamorphoses should occur amongst insects 

 which have great structural affinities, and which belong to a very 

 natural order. 



The Ncuroptcra are known at once by their peculiar wings. 

 They have four, which are membranous and naked — that is to 

 say not covered with scales — and they are marked with mem- 

 branous nervures so arranged as to look like net-work. They are 

 insects whose wings are therefore much veined and reticulate, 

 their legs are delicate, and their bodies are almost always long 

 and slender. The jaws and the structures of the mouth concerned 

 in feeding are separate, and do not form a sucking apparatus. 

 There are many different forms amongst the Netiroptcra, and some 

 have exceptional structures. Thus there are Ncuroptcra whose 

 transparent wings have nervures placed across them, and there are 



