NEUROPTERA. 
l8l 
sometimes called Golden-eyes, and sometimes, a Lace-winged- 
fly, from its appearance. The Lace-wing is a prudent 
mother; she knows that if she lays her eggs together on a 
leaf the first Aphis-lion that hatches will eat for his first 
meal all his unhatched brothers and sisters. She guards 
against this fratricide by laying each egg on the top of a 
stiff stalk of hard silk about half an inch high. Groups of 
these eggs are very pretty, looking like a tiny forest of 
white stems bearing on their summits round glistening fruit. 
When the first of the brood hatches, he scrambles down as 
best he can from his egg perch to the surface of the leaf, 
and runs off, quite unconscious that the rest of his family 
are reposing in peace high above his head. 
The mouth-parts of these larvae are very unusual in 
form. The mandibles are very long; on the lower side of 
each of them there is a furrow the entire length; into this 
furrow the long and slender maxilla fits. In this waj' the 
mandible and the maxilla of each side form a tube, through 
which the blood of the prey of the insect can be drawn. 
This explains why an Aphis-lion holds its prey on the tips 
of its long jaws, at arm’s length, as it were, while sucking 
its blood. 
Nearly all of the members of this family belong to the 
genus Chrysopa (Chry-so'pa). 
Family HEMEROBIID^E (Hem-e-ro-bi'i-dae). 
The Henterobians (Hem-e-ro'bi-ans). 
The common members of this family are rather dark- 
colored insects, with the wings mottled with dark browr. or 
smoky specks, and with some of the veins between the cojta 
and subcosta forked. 
The most conspicuous member of the family is Polys - 
tcechotes punctatus (Pol-ys-toech'o-tes punc-ta'tus), which is 
represented natural size by Figure 220. The larva is 
unknown. 
