NEUROPTERA. 65 



brown colour, cylindrical in shape, with a narrow point 

 at the top ; they are attached to the stems with the 

 most precise regularity. I have often watched Slalis 

 lutarius in the act of laying her eggs ; firmly holding on 

 by her legs to the stem or leaf of a plant, such as a 

 carex or sparganium, she bends down her abdomen and 

 glues egg after Qgg upon it in the regular manner 

 described. In about ten days'" time the young larv^ are 

 hatched, when they drop into the water, where they 

 pass their larval state. And certainly the larvoe are 

 ugly, ferocious looking fellows, of a shining brown colour, 

 a strong pair of jaws, which they exhibit in a menacing 

 w^ay when disturbed. The abdomen has a fringe of fila- 

 ments on either side — seven pairs in all. These are the 

 branchial organs, and serve both for respiration and loco- 

 motion. If a segment of the larva be cut off from the 

 body, and placed with its attached filament under the 

 microscope, one sees at first sight the function of these 

 organs. The filament contains a delicate tracheal tube, 

 with numerous arborescent branchlets, extending along 

 its whole length ; near the base it joins a large lateral 

 tracheal vessel. AVhen the creature wishes to assume 

 its pupa state, it crawls into a hole in the bank and 

 forms a cell. In this stage it is inactive. 



The Phryganidce, or Caddis-flies, are by many Ento- 

 mologists separated from the Order Neuroptera, and 

 placed in an order by themselves, on account of the 

 structure of the wings, the anterior pair of which is 

 covered with hairs, hence the term proposed for them, 

 the Trichoptera. The wings have no cross reticulations, 

 and the manner in which the hairs are fixed on the first 

 pair of wings reminds one of the scales in the butterfly's 



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