Art. X.] Hine, Panorpidae of Ametica Nofth of Mexico. 243 
placed in at least four distinct genera, were described as belong- 
ing to the genus. Gradually as insects have become better 
classified, Panorpa has been restricted to its present limits. 
Besides the considerations which Klug gave in his paper 
referred to above, Westwood has published a monograph of 
Pa 7 torpa in the Transactions of the Entomological Society of 
London for 1846. Hagen gave descriptions of the then known 
American species in his Synopsis of Neuroptera in 1861. Me 
Lachlan, in the Trans, of the Ent. Soc. of London for 1868, 
considered the European species, and a number of species from 
Japan. Banks gave a synopsis of American species in the 
Trans, of the American Ent. Soc. Vol. 22, 1895. 
The members of the genus seem to subsist mainly upon 
animal matter that they find dead, but Davis has recorded in 
Bulletin 15 of the Arkansas Experiment Station that he has 
observed a species of Panorpa preying upon the cotton worm. 
Felt has made the interesting statemeht, that in his experience 
they paid no attention to living, healthy larvae, but when he 
placed a living, injured larva in the breeding cage where speci- 
mens of Panorpa were confined, they immediately set to work 
sucking juices from the wound. I have observed a speci- 
men feeding on a Dipteron which from appearances was dead 
before it was attacked by the Panorpa. 
The characters which have been used in separating the 
various species are many; formerly the number of teeth on the 
claws and the size of the horn on the sixth segment of the male 
were considered of value, but for American forms these appear 
to be of little consequence. The characters found in the wings 
have long been used. The wing pictures although variable are 
certainly of value and the length of the sub-costa,- that is, 
whether it unites with the costa at the pterostigma, or before 
it, as used by McLachlan in 1868 in connection with European 
species is of value, but subject to some variation. In the male, 
the form of the 7th and 8th abdominal segments, the presence 
or absence of a horn on the sixth segment, and the genital 
organs are worthy of consideration. 
