NEUROPTERA. — RAPHIDIIDA. 57 
of which the differences of form have been employed as specific 
characters. 
These insects are of comparatively small size, agile in their move- 
ments; the astructure of the head and neck, powerful jaws, and the 
elongated coxze of the legs, as well as the membranous attachment of 
the segments of the body, indicating predaceous habits. They receive 
their English name of snake-flies from the form of the head and neck, 
and the facility with which they move the front of the body in dif- 
ferent directions. It is in the neighbourhood of woods and streams 
that these insects are chiefly found. 
This family seems to occupy an intermediate situation between 
the larger species of the Sialide and the Mantispide, agreeing with 
the former in the enlarged size of the prothorax and structure of 
the head, and with the Jatter in general form. 
The transformations of these insects have formed the subject of 
memoirs by Latreille, Percheron, Waterhouse, and Stein. 
The larva, for a specimen of which I am indebted to Mr. Ingpen, 
resides (according to Percheron, who reared two species) wnder the 
bark of trees ; it is predaceous, and feeds upon minute insects * ; it 
creeps but slowly, but gives to its body violent jerking motions in 
every direction, somewhat like those of a serpent. It is long and 
narrow (fig. 66.8.), with the abdominal part of the body pubescent, 
dilated in the middle, and not so scaly as the head and prothorax ;_ it 
is 13-jointed including the head, which is oblong, flattened, with short 
3-jointed antennz, not including the radicle ( fig. 66. 12.); the jaws 
are robust, curved, acute at the tip, with a strong tooth on the inner 
margin (jig. 66. 9.); the maxillz ( fig. 66. 10.) and labium are distinct 
(fig. 66.11.), with short palpi; the legs are short (fig. 66.14. tarsus) ; 
the abdomen is unarmed ; the eyes resemble ocelli (jig. 66. 13.), and 
are situated near the base of the antenne. I cannot observe more 
than two on each side of the head, which is the number also noticed 
by Waterhouse; Percheron, however, states that there are seven on 
each side. The pupa is not inclosed ina cocoon. It resembles the 
perfect insect in general form, but is furnished only with short rudi- 
ments of wings, lying at the sides of the body (fig. 66.17. male pupa, 
* Mr. Waterhouse states that he always found the larvee in the bark, in which they 
formed cells for themselves, and that he never observed them to feed upon other 
insects, although he admits that the structure of the mouth is that of a predaceous 
rather than a lignivorous insect. I should apprehend that the larya: noticed by Mr. 
Waterhouse were preparing a retreat for their pupation. 
