332 INSECTS. NEUROPTEHA. 



generally horizontal, longer than the body ; first segment of the 

 trunk large, semicircular ; jaws scaly, pointed. 



The insects of this tribe live in numerous communities, concealed in the interior 

 of the habitations they form. Their metamorphosis is incomplete. These societies are 

 composed of one male, one female, and workers or neuters, which are constantly apte- 

 rous. Some of these last, differing from the others in the form of the head, appear 

 to be the defenders of the community. 



Gen. TERMES, EMBIA (differing in the antennas.) 



Gen. TERMES. Lin. Lat. 



Antennae shorter than the head and thorax, moniliform, of about 

 eighteen joints ; body depressed ; head round ; three small 

 and smooth ocelli on the forehead; four filiform palpi; ex- 

 tremity of the jaws scaly, pointed, and covered by a kind of 

 plate ; labium quadrifid ; abdomen square, with two small co- 

 nical points at its extremity ; feet short ; body depressed. 



The insects of this genus are almost all foreign, and they are regarded as the 

 scourge of warm climates. Nothing softer than metals or stones is able to resist their 

 destructive powers. ' The larger species of Africa, called white ants, erect nests on 

 the surface of the ground, often twelve feet high above the surface, and perforated 

 by galleries, in which the community reside, protected by a race of soldiers. These 

 erections, when the size of the animal (four lines long) is taken into consideration, are 

 monuments far more wonderful, and five times larger, than the boasted pyramids of 

 Egypt. Sparmann relates many curious circumstances connected with the habits of 

 the Termes. They resemble the ants in their laborious industry ; but they surpass 

 the bee, the wasp, and the beaver, in the art of constructing their dwellings. One 

 species seems in their migrations to march with all the precision of battalions of sol- 

 diers. They bite severely. 



T. lucifugum, Ross. Body blackish, pubescent, with the fore part 

 of the head, the legs and tarsi yellowish brown ; wings transpa- 

 rent, with a tint of cinereous. 4 lines long. Inhabits Italy. 

 Lat. Gen. iii. 206. 



TRIBE VI. RAPHIDIN.E. 



Tarsi composed of four or five joints ; prothorax elongated, cy- 

 lindrical ; wings equal, deflexed, much reticulated, the infe- 

 rior ones not bent at their internal margin ; antennae filiform 

 or almost setaceous, sometimes short and granulated ; palpi 

 filiform, or a little thicker at the end. 



These insects are terrestrial at all ages, and their metamorphosis is incomplete. 

 The body of the larva is linear, and resembles a small worm. 

 Gen. RAPHIIHA, MANTISPA. 



Gen. RAPHIDIA, Lin. Lat. 



Tarsi with four joints, of which the penult is bilobed ; anterior 

 segment of the trunk long ; wings deflexed ; antennae almost 

 setaceous, from thirty to thirty-eight joints, inserted between 

 the eyes ; mandibles" dentated ; four short and filiform palpi. 



R. ophiopsis, Lin. Head and body shining black ; wings large, 

 transparent, with the nerves black, and a small brown spot to- 

 wards the middle of the exterior border ; head slightly flattened ; 

 female with a setaceous appendage as long as the antennae at the 

 extremity of the abdomen, Europe, on trees Nouv.Dict. xxix. 20. 



