ORDER NEUROPTERA. 43 



The laiTce of this group for the most part inhabit quiet waters, 

 ponds, canals, etc. 



Tliis family is subdivided into three sub-families, viz., Phry- 

 ganeidce, Limnophilidce^ Sericostomidce.. 



Family 2, yEguipalpia. — This family constitutes a second group, 

 and also contains many species, many of them, however, being 

 very minute insects, some hardly one-eighth of an inch across the 

 wings. They make little cases of silk resembling seeds, to the 

 outer surface of which they attach grains of sand, etc. 



The yEguipalpia contains four sub-families — viz., Leptoceridce, 

 Hydropsychidce^ Rhyacophilidce, and Hydroptilidce. 



Of the LeptoceridcB, Molaufia migustata may be taken as a 

 typical example, the larva of which lives on the sandy bottom 

 of pools, and is very difficult to detect. 



Sub-Order 3. — Pseudoneuroptera. 



In the third sub-order of the Neuroptera are grouped together 

 a series of insects which present great divergences of character, 

 and really do not belong to the true Neuroptera on account of 

 their incomplete metamorphoses They, however, for the most 

 part, resemble the Neuropte7'a in the structure of their wings. 



They are divided into several tribes and many families. 



Tribe I. — Ornoptera or Dragon Flies. 



To this tribe belong the Dragon Flies, the largest and most 

 beautiful members of the whole order. 



About 1,500 species have been described from various parts of 

 the world, and of these about fifty are known to inhabit our own 

 country. 



Their habits are very much ahke. The insect passes all the 

 earlier stages of its existence in water. The larvce are most 

 voracious creatures, and are undoubtedly the most predaceous of 

 insects. The apparatus by which they capture their prey consists 

 of a peculiar modification of the labiuvi. 



When full grown the larvce. crawl up the stem of some aquatic 

 plant out of the water, and after resting there for a longer or 

 shorter time the skin splits open along the thoracic region, and the 

 perfect insect by degrees struggles out of its investment, and 

 when the wings are dried it starts off to continue the same scene 

 of rapine which has characterised its subterranean existence. 



The perfect insect may be seen hawking about for insects in 

 the neighbourhood of pools in all fine weather during the summer 



