no 



cm be called, home saying they reach live 

 feet in height, and others declaring they have 

 seen them as high as twenty. They are very 

 destructive insects, perhaps none more so. 

 They always work out of sight, and construct 

 tunnels and covered ways wherever they 

 travel. They devour almost everything, but 

 are most partial tu wood, and as they never 

 penetrate through the surface, they may de- 

 stroy almost every article in a house before it 

 is known they are there. Penetrating through 

 the floor, into the leg of a table or a chair, 

 they will eat all away, leaving only the outer 

 skin. They have been known to attack pic- 

 tures, leaving only the glass and the outside 

 of the frame, but all being firmly cemented 

 to it* place. When this happens the dull- 

 ness of tha glass generally discloses what has 

 been dene. Where Termites abound. Hum- 

 holt says it i- 1 rare to find papers that go fifty 

 or sixty years back. Teak and iionwood are 

 said to be exempt from their attack. The 

 female of some species attains a great size, but 

 it is the abdomen principally that makes her 

 so large. The head and thorax are perhaps 

 the third of an inch, and the remainder of the 

 body four or rive inches long. She lays an 

 incredible number of eggs, some say 60 per 

 minute, and one observer who grve great at- 

 tention to the White Ants was of opinion that 

 she went on laying all the year round. You 

 may reckon up .for yourselves how many eggs 

 she would lay in a year. Resides males and 

 females as in other insects, there are workers 

 whirl) are probably undeveloped females, and 

 soldiers which may be undeveloped males. 

 Some other insects have workers, or neuters 

 as they are sometimes called, such as the Bee 

 and the Ant, but the fourth class, the soldier, 

 i» con fim-d to the Termites. 



Another interesting group among the true 

 Neuroptera is the Ephemeras or May Flies, 

 named from the shortness of their life when 

 in the perfect state. Like the Dragon Fly, 

 the May Fly passes its probationary stages in 

 water. The larva closely resembles the pupa 



except in the absence of wing cases. The 

 imago is like the pupa, except that its wings 

 are developed, and the hairs in the anal 

 segment are even longer, and divested of the 

 pectinations of the earlier stage. The 

 Ephemerae generally emerge from the pupa 

 in the evening, and there is a peculiarity in 

 this family that obtains in no other. When 

 ready for the change, the pupa crawls up a 

 stem, as does the Dragon Fly, the skin splits 

 in the same way and a winged insect emerges, 

 which, however, is not yet the perfect 

 Ephemerae, but is called a /tspiirfo-iniagrt, or 

 false imago. This has thick wings, ami is 

 but a weak flyer. In an hour or two a further 

 change takes place, the covering intigument 

 is again cast off, ami the clear- winged, light- 

 flying May Fly appears. 



Before we close this paper, we 'had better 

 repeat the characteristics of the order. 

 Neuroptera (omitting Trichoptem). Four 

 membranaceous wings, generally of nearly 

 equal length, very long in proportion to their 

 width; long slender bodits ; jaws or man- 

 dibles for biting their food ; larva like the 

 pupa, which moves actively, takes food, and 

 I closely resembles the perfect insect. 



Next week we will speak of the Trichoptera. 



ORIGIN OF THE MINUTEST 

 FORMS OF ANIMAL LIFE. 



The lecturer first explained the meaning of 

 two words which he should frequently use 

 during his discourse. Biology is derived from 

 two Greek words, bios, which means life ; ami 

 logos, a discourse. Biology thus meant the 

 science of all living beings. Homogeneous is 

 ! a term applied to anything of the same struc- 

 I ture throughout, as a crystal or a piece of 

 glass. It may be that we have- not magnify- 

 j ing power enough, that the instruments 

 j at present, at our command are not sufficiently 

 powerful to show any structure ; but there 

 appears to be living homogeneous matter — 



