FLAT-WINGED GROUP 3131 



bottom. Its size is adapted to the size of the larva, which when full grown makes 

 a pit about two inches deep, and three inches wide at the top. Buried in the sand 

 at the bottom, with only its antennae and the tips of its mandibles projecting, the 

 ant-lion waits until an ant or some other creature falls down the loose sides of the 

 pit, when it is immediately seized with the pincer-like jaws, and retained until all 

 the juices of its body have been sucked out, and nothing left but the dry and 

 shriveled skin. The latter is cast outside the pit, and the larva again lies in wait. 

 If by chance the victim should escape the first onslaught, and endeavor to scramble 

 up the sides of the pit, its attempt is soon frustrated, for the ant-lion throws up 

 sand with its head, causing the victim to tumble once more to the bottom. 



The lace- winged flies (Hemerobiidce and Ckrysopidas) are smaller and more 

 delicate insects than the ant-lions, and have setiform antennae. The golden-eyed 

 fly (Ckrysopa vulgaris}, figured on p. 3130, may be taken as a typical species. It is 

 slender, with long and richly-veined wings of a tender green color, as is also the 

 body. Its antennae are long and tapering, and its prominent eyes shine like 

 hemispheres of gold. The larvae of the lacewings are not unlike the ant-lion, 

 although somewhat longer and narrower in proportion to the size of their bodies, 

 and less hairy. Their mandibles, moreover, have no teeth on the inner side. In 

 their carnivorous habits they resemble ant-lions, but instead of making pits and 

 remaining stationary they rove about in search of their prey, which consists of the 

 different kinds of green fly and plant lice. 



Order ORTHOPTERA 



This order being taken to include, not only the true Orthoptera, but various 

 other groups formerly placed in the Neuroptera, and hence known as Pseudoneurop- 

 tera, it is necessary in defining the group to mention only such characteristics as 

 are common to the whole of these insects. None of the members of the group 

 undergo a distinct metamorphosis; the development from the larval to the adult 

 condition taking place by a succession of changes, and the perfect insects being 

 distinguishable from advanced larvae by little more than the possession of complete 

 wings. The wings are, however, in some cases confined to one sex, while in others 

 they are altogether wanting in both sexes. The mouth organs, when not reduced 

 to a functionless condition, are adapted to biting; the lower lip (labium) is nearly 

 always divided in the middle at its free end, and each of the two halves often sub- 

 divided into a pair of lobes. On the floor of the mouth, concealed by the labium, 

 there is, as a rule, a membranous or more or less horny structure, known as the 

 tongue (lingua), or hypopharynx, which is free from the labium in its anterior part. 

 Though poor in the number of species, as compared with some other orders, the 

 Orthoptera contain many of the most interesting forms of insect life; some, like the 

 leaf and stick insects, remarkable for their size and the variety of their protective 

 disguises, others, as the white ants, for the wonderful development of their social 

 habits. The dayflies are noted for the shortness of their lives, the dragon flies for 

 their beauty; while many other forms are well known from some particular feature 



