94 APPLIED ENTOMOLOGY 



About 1913 a group of insects was discovered, living in Ceylon, Java, 

 Africa and Costa Rica, which seemed to differ so greatly from those 

 already known as to justify placing them in a new order. Those first 

 found were minute, wingless, with only vestiges of eyes at most, and a 

 thorax as long as the abdomen. Cerci are present. The insects aver- 

 age about a twelfth of an inch in length, with legs similar in form and 

 used for running. The tarsus consists of only two segments and the 

 mandibles are well-developed, the mouth parts being of the chewing 

 type. More recent discoveries of these insects in Florida and Texas 

 show that the adult females may have well-developed eyes; wings, at 

 least in some cases, which they shed like the Termites, and that while the 

 head resembles that of the Plecoptera the hinder end of the body resem- 

 bles that of the Termites. It is also known that these insects are social 

 and generally occur near Termites, though not usually mingled with 

 them. They will probably prove to be rather nearly related to the 

 Isoptera. 



The order Zoraptera has been established to include these insects, 

 but so little is as yet known about them that they have not been treated 

 in a separate chapter in this book. 



