cxc Proposed Division of Neuroplera 



longitudinally folded : flight in the evening, laborious, almost 

 invariably descending ; feeds on insects. 



Obs. — Almost every entomologist of eminence, and amongst them 

 Geoffroy, Reaumur, Fabricius, Olivier, Latreille and MacLeay, have 

 regarded this group as possessing the case-bearing larva and quies- 

 cent cocooned pupa of the Stegoptera; but my conclusions are drawn 

 from long and pains-taking observations on the insects themselves, 

 and are confirmed by the subsequent researches of the accurate Pic- 

 tet : I cannot therefore doubt of their correctness. 



The following formula expresses what we know of the subdivision 

 of this group. 



Imago breathing by external branchiae as 



well as tracheae Pteronarcioe, Newm. 



Imago breathing by tracheae only : — 



and has 2 caudal setae Perlida:, Newm., non 



Leach. 

 and has no caudal setae Nemourim, Newm. 



Characters of Termitina. 



Larva and pupa terrestrial, active, hexapod, furnished with powerful 

 mandibles : social, constructive, voracious, omnivorous. 



Imago with moderately long moniliform antennae, depressed head 

 received in the prothorax, hemispherical small distant lateral 

 eyes, strong corneous mandibles, fully developed and transverse 

 prothorax, 4 long membranous wings of equal size and form, 

 which when at rest are decumbent but not deflected, the hind 

 pair not folded, abdomen with two minute caudal papillae : flies 

 slowly and laboriously, and rids itself of its wings before found- 

 ing a new colony ; some authors assert that the wings are arti- 

 culated to the thoracic segments, and fall off spontaneously at 

 the articulation ; Mr. Davis asserts that he saw the insect bite 

 off its own wings : tarsi 3- or 4-jointed. 



Obs. 1. — These are the white ants, universally known by their ex- 

 traordinary constructive instincts. 



Obs. 2. Relating to the present confusion of the states of larva and 

 pupa. — In social necromorphous insects, the Formicina for instance, 

 we have commonly four kinds of imagines or adults, these are perfect 

 males and females, and imperfect males and females ; in these latter, 

 the progress of development appears to have been arrested at a given 

 point by a certain law of Nature, which seeks, in these instances, the 



