ORDER YV. 
NET-WINGED INSECTS—(NEUROPTERA). 
Tue insects of this order are distinguished principally 
by their delicate wings, which resemble the finest net- 
work, and on this account they are called by the Germans 
Florfliegen (‘Gauze flies”). Their bodies are long, thin, 
and soft; their wings, also, are long, 
transparent. ‘They seem to be in continual motion like 
swallows, and, catching their prey with their feet while fly- 
ing, they devour it in the air. They generally deposit their 
narrow, and almost 
eggs in ponds, in which the larve or grubs issuing from 
them live one or two years, partly on water plants, and 
partly on other aquatic insects, until they metamorphose 
into a perfect winged insect, when they change their watery 
element for a more ethereal one. 
All the insects of this order are not only innoxious, but 
are decidedly beneficial to man, and as such deserve our 
care and cultivation. 
The different genera belonging to this order are quite 
numerous; and as some of the modern German and French 
entomologists proposed to unite several of them with the 
order of Orthoptera, or Straight-winged Insects, our much- 
lamented friend, Dr. Harris of Cambridge, violently opposed 
such an innovation, and gave us his reasons for his opposi- 
tion in the following letter, which, as it so well represents 
the characteristics of the order we are describing, we shall 
give nearly entire: 
“CaMBRIDGE, Mass., February 22, 1855. 
© Professor Jaegar: 
“Dear Sir,—Your letter of the 13th January has re- 

