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ALL the varieties of metamorphosis may be observed amongst 
the Meuroptera. Some of these insects never have a period of 
inactivity, and do not undergo greater transformations than the 
Orthoptera. But others have to submit to two metamorphoses 
before they become perfect, and the transformations are as 
sharply defined as they are in the Lepidoptera. These last undergo 
complete, and those just mentioned pass through incomplete, 
metamorphoses. 
Other Meuroptera remain in a condition of inaction for a very 
short time, and their nymphs lose their activity and undergo a 
rapid metamorphosis, as it were, at the very moment when the 
adult insects escape from the pupa case. It is very remarkable 
that such varied metamorphoses should occur amongst insects 
which have great structural affinities, and which belong to a very 
natural order. 
The Neuroptera are known at once by their peculiar wings. 
They have four, which are membranous and naked—that is to 
say not covered with scales 
and they are marked with mem- 
branous nervures so arranged as to look like net-work. They are 
insects whose wings are therefore much veined and reticulate, 
their legs are delicate, and their bodies are almost always long 
and slender. The jaws and the structures of the mouth concerned 
in feeding are separate, and do not form a sucking apparatus. 
There are many different forms amongst the Vewroptera, and some 
have exceptional structures. Thus there are Mewroptera whose 
transparent wings have nervures placed across them, and there are 
