PANORPID^E. 161 



are nevertheless slow and inactive in their habits, and frequent 

 the neighbourhood of water, in which they pass their larva state. 

 The ordinary species, Sialis lutaria, or May-fly, is a well-known 

 bait with the angler, being produced during the spring months 

 in large quantities ; it is of a dull brown colour, and may be 

 found on the walls or palings near the water. The larva is fur- 

 nished with appendages for aquatic respiration, strongly resem- 

 bling those of the Ephemera ; but when arrived at its full 

 growth, it quits the water and burrows into the adjoining bank, 

 in which it excavates a sort of cell. Here it is transformed into 

 a pupa, which remains inactive, with its limbs laid along the 

 breast, but which is lively when disturbed ; and here, too, it 

 undergoes its final change. 



745. The PANORPID.ZE are distinguished by having the head 

 produced downwards into a rostrum. The common British 

 species are known under the name of Scorpion-flies, on account 

 of the remarkable conformation of the 

 posterior extremity of the abdomen in 

 the male. The sixth and seventh seg- 

 ments are very slender and somewhat 

 curved upwards, so as to constitute a 

 sort of tail ; whilst the eighth is greatly 

 thickened, forming an oval mass, armed 

 with a pair of forceps, and capable of 

 *'~ P ' free motion in an 7 direction. The species 



represented in Fig. 480 is a very common 



British insect, frequenting hedges and woods. The Scorpion- 

 flies are very active, and prey upon other insects in the perfect 

 state. The abdomen of the female is also prolonged so as to 

 form an ovipositor ; by which she can deposit her eggs in deep 

 holes or crevices. In the curious foreign genus Nemoptera, some 

 species of which are found in the southern countries of Europe, 

 the anterior wings are broad and rounded, and the posterior pair 

 are greatly elongated and very narrow, but terminated by a broad 

 dilatation. In Boreus, another singular genus of this family,' 

 the wings are wanting, or represented only by peculiar append- 

 ages ; this insect is also remarkable for its habits, as it is always 

 found in the depth of winter, hopping about upon the snow. 



