CADDIS-FLIES. 101 



than a quarter of an inch across the wings, which are remarkable 

 for being always covered with a white mealy powder. The larva 

 is found on fir-trees, where it feeds on Aphides. 



The sub-family Mantispincs is remarkable for having the fore 

 legs long, thick, and serrated, as in Mantis. The commonest species 

 is Mantispa Pagana, Fabr., which, although not found in Britain, is 

 met with in many parts of Europe among trees and shrubs. The 

 thorax is red, and the abdomen yellow, with red lines ; the wings 

 are transparent. 



FAMILY III. Panorpidce. 



Wings long, narrow, and equal, horizontal in repose ; mouth 

 produced into a kind of beak; larvse living underground, and 

 probably feeding on insects, etc., of subterranean habits. 



Several species of Panorpa, Linn., abound along hedges; they 

 are brown or black insects, with transparent wings blotched or 

 spotted with black ; the body is sometimes marked with yellow. 

 They are frequently called " Scorpion Flies," from the long abdomen 

 of the male being provided with a singular forceps. The species 

 of the genus Bittacus, Latr., which are common on the Continent, 

 though not British, have long, slender, transparent wings, and long 

 slender legs; and so much resemble Tipulidce that they might 

 easily be mistaken for them at first sight, even in a collection, but 

 that they have four wings instead of two. Boreus Hiemalis, Linn., 

 is a small greenish-brown insect about one-sixth of an inch long, 

 with rudimentary wings. It is found among moss, and sometimes 

 on the surface of the snow during the winter months, and possesses 

 the power of leaping. 



TRICHOPTERA. 



Antennae long and slender; mouth imperfectly developed; 

 tarsi generally five-jointed ; wings long, with but few transverse 

 veins, hairy, deflected; hind wings folded. Metamorphosis com- 

 plete ; larvse aquatic, living in cases, in which they also assume 

 the pupa state ; pupa inactive. 



The Trichoptem, or Phryganidce, are known as Caddis Flies, 

 and the cases which the larvse construct for themselves of bits 

 of stick, small stones, or even shells, are perhaps better known 

 than the flies themselves. They are sometimes regarded as a 

 separate Order, but are at present usually treated as a section of 

 the Neuroptera, pending a more thorough and satisfactory rearrange- 



