WONDERFUL JAWS. 



375 



when the jaws are expanded they look very much like a second 

 pair of antennge, and when they are closed they cross each other 

 at about one-third of their length from the tips. In the speci- 

 mens which I have examined, the left jaw is uppermost when 

 they are closed and crossed. In the female the jaws are short 

 and stout, and there is as much difference in this respect between 

 the sexes as there is between the male and female Stag Beetle. 



All the Sialidse pass their earlier stages of existence in the 

 water. The female lays her eggs upon aquatic plants, and the 

 larva is a brown, flatfish, long- bodied, strong-jawed grub, with a 

 number of filamentary gills along the sides, and swimming with 

 an undulatory motion. It is very plentiful, and it is easy to 

 take some thirty or forty specimens in a single sweep of the net 

 among the weeds. 



Of the curious family of Mantispidee no British species are as 

 yet known. We have the well-known Snake Flies, or Baphi- 



Fig. 181.— Mantispa grandis. 

 (Brown.) 



diidaa, which bear some resemblance to the Mantispidee, espe- 

 cially in the prehensile form of the first pair of legs. As may be 

 inferred from the name, the Mantispidee bear a close resemblance 



