NEUROPTERA. 203 
almost setaceous, and composed of five joints, and the labials of three, 
the last of which is somewhat the thickest; maxilla and a membra- 
nous labium united. The body is most frequently bristled with hairs, 
and, with the wings, forms an elongated triangle, like several of the 
Noctue and Pyrales. The first segment of the thorax is small. The 
wings are simply veined, usually coloured, or almost opaque, silky or 
pilose in several, and always strongly tectiform. The legs are 
elongated, are furnished with small spines, and have five joints in all 
the tarsi. 
These Insects chiefly fly at night or during the evening, diffuse a 
disagreeable odour, frequently penetrate into houses, where they are 
attracted by the light, and are extremely quick and agile in all their 
motions. In coition they are joined end to end, and remain so a long 
time. The smaller species flit about in flocks, over ponds and rivers. 
Several females carry their eggs in a greenish bundle at the poste- 
rior extremity of their abdomen. De Geer saw some of these eggs 
which were inclosed in a glairy substance resembling the spawn of a 
Frog, and deposited on plants or other bodies on the banks of 
rivers, &c. 
Their larve, called by some of the older naturalists Ligniperdes, 
and by others Charrées, always, like the Tinez, inhabit,tubes that are 
usually cylindrical, covered with various substances which they find 
in the water, such as blades of grass, bits of reeds, leaves, roots, 
seeds, grains of sand, and even little shells, and frequently arranged 
symmetrically. They connect these various bodies with silken 
threads; the source of which is contained in internal reservoirs, simi- 
lar to those of Caterpillars, and that are also produced by fusi situated 
in the lip. The interior of the habitation forms a tube which is open 
at both ends, for the intromission of water. The larva always trans- 
ports its domicil along with it, protrudes the anterior extremity of its 
body while progressing, never quits its dwelling, and when found to 
do so returns to it voluntarily, when left within its reach. 
These larve are elongated and almost cylindrical; their head is 
squamous and furnished with stout mandibles, and a little eye on 
each side; they have six feet, the two anterior shorter and usually 
thicker than the others, which are elongated. Their body is composed 
of twelve rings, the fourth of which is furnished on each side with a 
conical mammilla; the last is terminated by two movable hooks. In 
most of them we also observe two ranges of white membranous and 
extremely flexible threads, which seem to be organs of respiration. 
When about to become nymphs, they fix their tubes to different 
bodies, but always in water, and close the two orifices with a grating, 
the form of which, as well as that of the tube itself, varies according 
to the species. 
In fixing their portable dwelling, they so manage it that the aper- 
ture, which is at the point d’appui, is never obstructed. 
The nymph is furnished anteriorly with two hooks, which cross 
each other, and somewhat resemble a rostrum or snout. With it, 
when the period of its last metamorphosis has arrived, it perforates 
one of the grated septa in order to procure egress. 
Hitherto immovable, it now walks or swims with agility, by means 
Tes 
