76 A BOOK OF INSECTS 



must be mentioned because its members have a superficial 

 likeness to the mantids of the order Orthoptera, due 

 chiefly to the long prothorax and the manner in which 

 the raptorial fore-legs are held. Mantispidce may be dis- 

 tinguished from Mantidce, however, by the fact that all 

 their wings are similar in form and texture, and that 

 the abdomen carries no cerci. According to Professor 

 Carpenter, " the active campodeiform larva . . . makes its 

 way into the egg-cocoon of a hunting-spider or the nest of 

 a wasp, where it devours the developing spiders or grubs, 

 becoming changed into a fat eruciform larva with stumpy 

 legs. When full-grown, it spins a cocoon and pupates 

 within the dried larval skin, so that the mantispid, on 

 emergence, has to break through its own puparium and 

 cocoon, as well as through the spider's egg-bag or the 

 wasp's nest." These insects are very numerous in tropical 

 countries, and one is found in Southern Europe, but there 

 is no British representative. 



A large number of closely related Neuropterous insects 

 are known popularly as lace-wing flies. The larvae 

 frequent plants and prey upon aphides, from whose 

 bodies they suck the juices. Some of the species cover 

 their bodies with the dried skins of their victims. In 

 one genus (Osmylus) the larva? have exceedingly long 

 mandibles, and are found under stones or among moss, 

 often near or actually in water. The adult insects have 

 been divided into two families, namely the Chrysopidce, 

 in which the antennae are long, with cylindrical segments ; 

 and the Hemerohiidce, in which the antennae are relatively 

 shorter, with bead-like segments. To the Chrysopidce 

 the name " golden-eye flies " is often applied, owing 

 to the peculiar metallic lustre of the eyes in the living 

 insect. Their eggs are very remarkable objects, each 

 one being supported upon an immensely long stalk. 



