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NATHAN BANKS. 



is never rapid, and usually slow and somewhat irregular. They fly 

 little during day time, and not far even when disturbed. At twilight 

 and in the early evening their flight is more extended, and they are 

 then at their best. Several species are attracted to lights. The 

 females appear to generally deposit their eggs in the afternoon or 

 evening. Pairing, as far as I have observed, takes place in the day- 

 time ; the sexes are attached end to end. There are no secondary 

 sexual characters, save in the genus Meleoma, where the male has a 

 protuberance between the bases of the antennae. 



The odor, so characteristic of some of the commoner species of 

 Chrysopa, is not (as has been noticed by several writers) found in all 

 of the species. C. ^-punctata is the most common of the inodorous 

 species, ('. oculata the most common of the odorous ones. The cib 

 arian structures are quite well developed ; the mandibles are short 

 and stout; the maxillae large, and with five jointed palpi ; the labial 

 palpi three -join ted. Yet, so far as I am aware, the adult insect takes 

 no nourishment. However, they probably live for a week or more. 

 When they die, their frail bodies must soon disappear, as I have 

 never found a dead specimen. 



The genital organs in nearly all of our species are withdrawn in 

 the last segments of the abdomen ; they are rather soft and probably 

 shrink in drying. They have been used in the separation of some 

 European forms, but in the few closely allied forms that I have ex- 

 amined, they are not useful. The tarsi terminate in two claws, sim- 

 ilar in character in all of our species. 



Chrysopa has long been familiar to entomologists on account of 

 its remarkable larval habits. They pass the winter usually as pupa', 

 but at least one species, Chrysopa plorabunda, hibernates in the 

 adult state. Flies of this species have been found in hedges and 

 heaps of dry leaves during January, February and March. The 

 hibernating pupa? hatch, according to the species, from March to 

 June. The flies mate as soon as possible, and then the females pro- 

 ceed to attach their curious eggs in favorable situations. The egg is 

 elliptical in shape and attached at one end to a long slender pedicel, 

 whose base is expanded and attached to the leaf or twig. Usually 

 there is but one egg to each stalk ; but I have found in July a single 

 stalk on the bark of oak trees, which bore at its summit a cluster of 

 ten or fifteen eggs. I did not succeed in rearing the larvse. At 

 least one European species has a similar habit. In some species the 



