NEUROPTERA. Ml 
The body is generally long and slender, of a soft, or but slightly scaly 
consistence ; the head is not generally immersed in the prothoracic 
cavity, the prothorax being mostly collar-shaped, and forming with 
the other thoracic segments a portion of the body, well distinguished 
from the abdomen, which is, however, ordinarily sessile ; the ocelli, 
two er three in number, are generally present. 
There is also a great dissimilarity in the habits and economy of 
these insects, although the majority are predaceous. In their larva state 
their abodes are very diversified, some larvee residing in the water, 
others in damp earth, others living exposed upon plants, others again 
concealing themselves under a cloak of excrement, or in a pitfull of 
fine sand, whilst a few reside in colonies of immense extent. These 
insects are of an intermediate size, none exceeding our largest dragon 
flies in size, and none equalling in minuteness the minims of the 
Hymenoptera or Coleoptera. 
Various insects of this order have afforded to Carus, Bowerbank, 
Tyrrell, and others, materials for the discovery and observation of the 
circulation of the blood in insects. 
Linnzus, whose character of the order was simply “ Ale 4, nuda, 
venis reticulate : cauda sepius aliquo sexus adminicule instructa, in- 
ermis” (Syst. Nat. t. ii. p.901.), introduced into it the following 
genera, Libellula, Ephemera, Phryganea (or the caddice flies), Heme- 
robius, Myrmeleon, Panorpa, and Raphidia; the winged individuals of 
the genus Termes being introduced into the genus Hemerobius, whilst 
the apterous individuals were placed amongst the apterous insects. 
Fabricius remedied this error by taking in Termes amongst the other 
Neuroptera ; which name, however, he altered to Synistata, but added 
thereto the spring-tailed insects (Thysanura Latr.). He also raised 
the genus Libellula into a distinct order (or class), Odonata. 
Latreille adopted the order as left by Linneeus, with the addition of 
Termes; but Mr. Kirby separated Phryganea from the Neuroptera, 
and formed it into a distinct order under the name Trichoptera, in 
which he has been followed by English entomologists. MacLeay, how- 
ever, further united the Perlidz with the Trichoptera, in consequence 
of having evidently misunderstood Latreille’s sections given in the 
Genera Crust. et Ins. t. iii. p. 209. and 212.*, and dividing Latreille’s 
* Mr. MacLeay says that the Perlariz of Latreille’s Gen. Crust., &c., or the 
Phryganeide of Lamarck, is evidently a natural group, whose larvee (admirably de- 
scribed by Aristotle under the name of Xylopthori) are aquatic, and live in tubes 
or sheaths made by themselves; and he then insists that the larve, metamorphoses, 
B 4 
