22 OUR INSECT FRIENDS AND FOES 



Now, is there any mature animal which answers 

 to this description? We need not have been 

 surprised if this type, through which it would 

 appear that insects must have passed so many 

 ages since (for winged Neuroptera have been 

 found in the carboniferous strata) had long ago 

 become extinct. Yet it is not so. The interesting 

 genus Campodea still lives; it inhabits damp 

 earth, and closely resembles the larva of Chloeon 

 (a Cricket), constituting a type which occurs in 

 many orders of insects." 



The Campodeidce are included in the Thysa- 

 nura or Bristle-tails, and are common in loose, 

 damp ground. The species referred to by Lord 

 Avebury, the Campodea staphylinus is typical of 

 the family. It is a small elongated insect, about 

 a sixth of an inch long, the head bearing a pair 

 of fairly long, many-jointed antennae ; the first, 

 second, and third thoracic segments each having 

 a pair of legs ; and the last abdominal segment 

 a pair of caudal bristles. The mouth parts of 

 the Campodea are at once interesting and 

 significant in their structure, for they are inter- 

 mediate between the prevalent strongly mandi- 

 bulate form peculiar to larvae of Coleoptera, 

 Orthoptera, Neuroptera, Hymenoptera, Lepi- 

 doptera, and the suctorial type of the Homoptera 

 and Heteroptera. To again quote Lord Ave- 

 bury, who has made such a special study of 

 these primitive wingless insects : " It appears, 

 then, that there are good grounds for considering 

 that the various types of insects are descended 

 from ancestors more or less resembling the 

 genus Campodea, with a body divided into a 



