64 B. GRASSI AND A. SANDIAS. 



The galleries obviously serve as a protectiou to the body 

 against excessive loss of moisture, or to keep the insect sur- 

 rounded by not too dry an atmosphere. They are made both 

 by the young and adults. 



The Embiae all become adult about the middle of June. 

 Pairing takes place about the end of the month, and they 

 probably deposit their eggs a few days later, dying perhaps in 

 the course of the summer. 



I imagine that they then die, as this would explain why 

 young ones only, at most from 7 to 9 mm. in length, were to 

 be found from November to June. Unfortunately my obser- 

 vations were interrupted from July to October. That they can 

 acquire wings is entirely out of the question. In fact, at the 

 end of June I have found impregnated females with the recep- 

 taculum full of semen, and others which had already laid eggs, 

 and at this time neither sex exhibited the slightest trace of 

 wings. 



The Embiae cannot jump, but run actively forwards or 

 backwards, and, unlike Thysanura, can climb with ease up a 

 glass surface. 



They feed on vegetable matter, but perhaps do not disdain 

 small arthropods (this I have been unable to determine).^ 



I now pass to their anatomical characters. 



The chitinous cuticle is mostly thin and soft, especially in 

 the larva, and its external surface is furnished with numerous 

 small points. The hypodermis is pigmented. 



There are ten pairs of stigmata (PI. 19, fig. 2) as in the 



necessary amount of silk, and there are no other glandular structures in the 

 body except those of the anterior legs to which its origin can possibly be 

 attributed.] 



1 [No observations in England on the food of Embia urichi were success- 

 ful; but, according to Mr, Hart, the species probably feeds largely on bark, 

 lichens, or fungous growths, and also on Coccidse. Specimens of the latter 

 on leaves which accompanied the insects appeared clearly to have been eaten; 

 the contents of the alimentary canal in preserved examples were mainly of 

 vegetable origin, but contained nothing of which the structure was definitely 

 to be identified.] 



