IIYMENOPTERA. 



581 



. grating ; . . Imagu. 



These larvae are elongate, nearly cylindric, with a scaly 

 head furnished with strong mandibles, and a small eye on 

 each side ; six feet, of which the two anterior are shortest 

 and thickest, and the other four longer ; the body is com- 

 posed of twelve joints, of which the fourth has a conical 

 tubercle on each side in the majority of the species ; the 

 terminal segment is furnished with two moveable hooks ; the 

 majority also possess two series of white flexible filaments, 

 \\hich ai)pear to be respiratory organs. When ready to 

 assume the pupa state, they fix their cases to some sub- 

 stance under water, closing each end with an open grating, 

 which, as well as the cases itself, varies in the different 

 species. 



The pupa; have in front two hooks, which cross each other like a beak, and with which they make 

 their way through the grating, [immediately before they assume their final form,] when, although pre- 

 viously immoveable, they walk or swim with agility, by means of their four fore-legs, which are free and 

 fiinged. The pupas of the larger species crawl up plants out of the water, where they throw off 

 their skin, but the smaller ones merely come to the surface, and are there transformed into winged 

 insects in the same way as Gnats, their old envelope serving them for a boat. 



Some have the hind wings evidently larger than the fore ones, and folded. 



Hericostoma, Latr., has in one of the sexes the maxillary palpi dilated into a mask covering the face ; in the 

 other sex they are filiform, and 5-jointed. 



P/iii/i/anea proper, has the mouth alike in both sexes, and the palpi shorter than the head and thorax, and 

 slightly villose. P. grandis, [and a great number of other species, well known to the angler and tly-fisher]. 



Mystacida, Latr., has the antennae exceedingly long, as well as the maxillary palpi, which are very hairy. (P. 

 filosa, quadrifasciata, &c.) 



The others have the fore wings narrow, lanceolate, subequal, and not folded. 



Ili/droptila, Dalm., with short aiitennte of equal thickness throughout. 



Psychomyia, Latr., has similar wings, but the antennae are long and setaceous, founded upon a minute, appa- 

 rently undescribed species. 



[This tribe has recently been thoroughly investigated by M. Pictet, whose memoir forms a thick quarto volume, 

 with many plates. Messrs. Stephens and Curtis have also described many new English species, as well as addi- 

 tional genera. 



Dr. Bumieister has published an entire revision of the order Neuroptera in the last part of his llandbuch der 

 Entomologie, in which he has also established many additional genera.] 



THE NINTH ORDER OF INSECTS,— 



THE HYMENOPTERA, Linnaeus (Piezata, Fabricius),— 



Also possesses four membranous, naked wings, a mouth furnished with mandibles, maxillai, and 

 two hps ; but the wings (of which the anterior are always the largest) have fewer nervures 

 tlian those of the Neuroptera, and are only veined [and not net-like] ; the females have the 

 abdomen terminated by an ovipositor or a sting. All possess, in addition to their comjjound 

 eyes, three minute ocelli; their antennae are of variable form, not only differing in the genera, 

 but also in the sexes of the same species ; they are nevertheless filiform or setaceous in the 

 majority ; the maxillae and lower lip are generally narrow, elongated, attached in a deep cavity 

 of the head by long muscles* ; semitubular at the base ; oftcu folded back at the extre- 

 mity ; more fitted for conducting the nutritive tluids than for mastication, and united in many 

 in the form of a proboscis ; the tonguelet is membranous, and either widened at the tip or 

 long and filiform, having the pharynx at its base, and often covered by a sort of sublabrum or 

 epipharynx ; two labial and two maxillary palpi ; thorax composed of three segments united in 



of this uciicriiJ I 



in otiicr biting insects it is tixed. 



