10 NEUROPTERA. 



from English specimens. A number of species, kindly com- 

 municated by Mr. Francis Walker, has been of essential aid 

 to me. It is to be hoped that English investigators will soon 

 be incited to fill up the existing gaps. 



CtENIS, Stephens. 

 (Brachycerus, Curtis; Oxycypha, Burmeister.) 



Head short, broad ; eyes simple, small, far apart ; thorax 

 long and thick ; wings large, almost without transverse 

 veins, fringed at the hind margin and at the base ; posterior 

 wings wanting. Abdomen short, conical ; in the male with 

 small lateral anal forceps ; in the female a large oval egg- 

 valve; in the male with three very long caudal filaments, 

 the middle one always the lonirest; in the female short, 

 feathered near the base, at the tip with a stout tuft of hair 

 (this peculiarity is observable in the sub-imago in both sexes) ; 

 penis of the male large, double, invertedly triangular ; the 

 claws of the tarsi replaced by two large quadrate lobes. 



Larva and pupa unknown. I once bred the perfect insect, 

 but unfortunately without having observed the larva. They 

 live in stagnant water which has clayey banks, and probably 

 belong to the tribe of burrowing larvae. The sub-imago 

 only diff'ers from the imago by the duller colour, shorter legs 

 and caudal filaments, and hairy wings. It appears in mul- 

 titudes in the middle of summer towards evening, especially 

 on thundery evenings, immediately moults, then copulates 

 and dies in the course of the night. The small yellowish 

 eggs are deposited in two large lumps. 



1. C. MACRURA, Shephens, Tllust. p. 60, l,pl. 29, fig. 1, ^ . 



Imago. Head, thorax and base of the antenna? shining 



dark black-brown : abdomen and the entire underside 



