cc Proposed Division of Neuroptera 



Characters of Hemerobiina. 

 Larva long, flattened, with a rather flat head ; short setiform anten- 

 nae ; long, curved, large and distinct leg-bearing segments : it 

 comes from a very peculiar egg, deposited by the parent on the 

 leaves of trees, to which it is attached by a long foot-stalk : it 

 feeds on Aphides, vast numbers of which it consumes, and hence 

 has obtained the name of Aphis-lion. 

 Pupa strictly necromorphous, bearing some resemblance, to the lar- 

 va ; the head and tail are bent towards each other, thus forming 

 a sort of semicircle ; it is inclosed in a nearly spherical silken 

 cocoon, in which it remains motionless throughout the winter. 

 Imago bearing no resemblance to the larva, and very little to the 

 pupa : it has a small transverse head, with distant hemispheri- 

 cal eyes, remarkable in the genus Chrysopa for their excessive 

 golden brilliancy ; moderately long, filiform, multiarticulate 

 antennae ; acute, corneous, mordent mandibles ; four ample, 

 similar, beautifully reticulated wings ; distinct prothorax ; soft 

 cylindrical body ; and moderately long simple legs : they fly 

 languidly and heavily ; and when irritated or crushed, many of 

 the species emit a most offensive odour. 

 The Hemerobiina may be divided into four principal groups, as 

 expressed in the following formula. 

 Ocelli 3 : — 



Wings long in proportion to their 

 breadth, very much resembling the 



ant-lions' Osmylid^e, Neivm. 



Ocelli : — 



Antennae setaceous, labrura emarginate Chrysopid.e, Newm. 



Antennae moniliform, labrum entire Hemerobiid^e, Nwm., 



non Leach. 

 In this division must also be placed a small and very singular in- 

 sect, the Hemerobius parvulus of Vill. Ent. Linn., which is also the 

 Phryganea alba of Fab. Ent. Syst., the Malacomyza lactea of Wesm. 

 Bull. Acad., and the Coniopteryx Tineiformis of Haliday, in Curt. 

 Brit. Ent. The larva is short and obese, very much like that of the 

 ant-lion ; it is apparently entomophagous, and when full-fed spins a 

 spherical and perfectly white cocoon, which is generally attached to 

 the bark of a tree : the pupa is perfectly quiescent, and, like the larva, 

 short and obese : the imago has multiarticulate filiform antennae, large 

 lateral eyes, entire labrum, horny acute mandibles, a bifid lacinia to 

 the maxillae, long slender 5-jointed maxipalpi, a truncate labium, elon- 



