NEUROPTERA, 77 
- labials of three, the last of which is somewhat the thickest; maxille 
and a membranous 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 tecti- 
form. 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. Thesmaller 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 enclosed in a glairy substance resembling the spawn of 
a Frog, and deposited on plants or other bodies on the banks of 
FIVERS, cc. : 
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 situ- 
ated 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” 
transports its domicil along with it, protrudes the anterior extre- 
_mity 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 com- 
posed 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 mem- 
branous 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, 
