cxcviii Proposed Division of Neuroptera 



Obs. — It remains a matter for future consideration, whether the 

 Raphidiina and Mantispina should be united : to me there appear 

 many points of resemblance between them, but others of decided 

 difference ; indeed, the more attentively the anatomy of Raphidia is 

 studied, the more closely will it be found to approach the Coleoptera ; 

 while Mantispa, especially in its raptorial fore-legs, exhibits a like 

 approach to the Mantina among the Orthoptera : this different ten- 

 dency induces me to continue them separate. 



Characters of Myrmeleontina.* 



Larva short, obese, inactive, with a flat head and oval body ; the 

 antennae are short and setiform ; the mandibles long, toothed, 

 and slightly curved, perfectly adapted to seizing their living 

 insect prey ; along the sides of the body are fasciculi of stiff 

 bristles, amounting to a regular fringe in one of the families 

 (Ascalaphidae). These larvae, under the familiar name of " ant- 

 lions," or some equivalent for that term, have been celebrated 

 in all ages for their instinctive habit of excavating pitfalls, in 

 the shape of an inverted cone, at the bottom of which they lie 

 concealed all but the mandibles, awaiting the arrival of their 

 prey, which having once fallen over the side of the excavation, 

 cannot maintain a footing on the light sand of which its sides 

 are composed, but gradually descends (the sand giving way 

 beneath its feet) to the very bottom, where it is seized by the 

 rapacious larva lying in wait to receive it ; its juices are sucked 

 out, and the empty skin is thrown to a considerable distance by 

 the muscular exertion of the ant-lion. The larva of Ascalaphus 

 is not generally supposed to make an excavation, but it lies in 

 wait amid sand or light earth, in the same manner as that of 

 Myrmeleon : some few of the Myrmeleontes are also aberrant 

 in this respect. 



Pupa strictly necromorphous, bearing no resemblance to the larva, 

 than which it is remarkably smaller, and the head and tail are 

 bent towards each other, so as nearly to meet ; in some of the 

 species it is contained in a spherical cocoon of silk interspersed 

 with grains of sand ; in this it changes to the imago, and the 

 head escaping first from the shell of the pupa, gnaws with its 



* Myrmecoleon, and not Myrmeleon, ought certainly to have been the name of the 

 genus ; hut I cannot agree with Burmeister in thinking we are at liberty to alter it : 

 such a liberty would re-open questions Tbng since supposed to be decided. 



