PSEUDO-NEUROPTERA 403 



Other Pseudo-Neuroptera. 



Family 1 : Dragon Flies (Libellulidae). 



In addition to the species above considered, we have a large number 

 of other species which, leaving out separate details, essentially resemble 

 each other in structure and mode of life, and whose larvas lead an aquatic 

 existence. Closely related to these is — 



Family 2: The May Flies (Ephemeridae). (See illustration, p. 401.) 



All the species comprised in this family are very delicate in structure, 

 and easily recognisable by the two or three long bristles on the abdomen. 

 They make their appearance in innumerable swarms on warm evenings in 

 the summer months (May to August). During their brief existence they 

 take no food, but nevertheless cast their skins once after escaping from 

 the larvae. The empty skins remain sticking to water-plants and other 

 objects. The larva also are aquatic. They breathe by leaf-like tracheal 

 gills (see above) found on the sides of the abdomen, and kept in constant 

 vibrating motion for the purpose of renewing the water of respiration 

 (see fishes and crustaceans). 



Family 3 : White Ants (Termitidae). 



These insects inhabit warm countries, and live, like ants, in well- 

 ordered societies. For this reason, and on account of their colour, they 

 have received the name white ants. As among true ants, their com- 

 munities consist of winged females and males, which, however, soon 

 lose their wings, and of wingless workers, to which, as in some foreign 

 species of ants, " soldiers " are added. The dwellings of the termites 

 also vary much in the different species. In Africa, one species builds 

 hills shaped like a sugar-loaf, from 14 to 17 feet high, and so hard as 

 to resist even the tropical downpours of rain. These insects feed on 

 anything that is eatable. They frequently invade human dwellings, 

 destroying everything which cannot resist their sharp-biting, pincer-like 

 jaws. As they workonly in the dark, they generally consume the interior 

 substance of objects — preferably the beams of houses — which then 

 collapse on the slightest shock. 



ORDER IX. : NO-WINGS (APTERYGOTA). 



Mouth parts masticatory; wings absent: development without meta- 

 morphosis. 



Among these, the lowest order of insects, we must place an inmate of 

 our houses, the Silver Fish or Sugar Mite (Lepisma saccharina), an 



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