NEUEOPTEEA. 



423 



The Agarions, which are of the same family, have the body 

 white, brown, or green, and the eyes very prominent. They are 

 more slim, and graceful than the Libellulas properly so called ; 

 their larvae are very elongated. 



In the spring, one meets in the woods with insects having large 

 heads and elongated thoraces. The females have a long auger, with 

 which to deposit their eggs under the bark of trees, where their 

 larvae, which feed on insects, and twist themselves about like 

 small serpents, live. The pupae are also very active ; they re- 



Fig. 395. Male Raphidia. Fig. 396. Larva of a Raphidia. Fig. 397. Pupa of a Raphidia. 



semble the adults very much, and have the wings laid against 

 the body. These insects, which are met with everywhere, but 

 always in small numbers, are the Raphidias, which we see repre- 

 sented (Figs. 395, 396, 397) in the state of larva, pupa, and adult, 

 and the Mantispas (Fig. 398), one species 

 of which is common in the south of Europe. 



M. Blanchard classes in the same tribe the 

 genus Semblis, whose larvae are aquatic, with 

 scaly heads, provided with eyes, and with 

 curved mandibles and short antennas. The 

 larvae and the pupae breathe, like those of the F ^- 39s.-Mantis P a pag ana. 

 Ephemera, by articulated external fillets or gills, analogous to 



Fig. 399. Semblis lutarius, imago, pupa, and larva. 



those of fishes. Nevertheless the pupae live on land, not in water. 



