114 
NEUROPTERA. 
J. Wood-Mason in 1883 (Proc. Zool. Soc., 1883, p. 328) described 
and figured Indian Embiides and recounts the capture of nymphs and 
females. The female he describes as wingless, shining black and more j 
firmly chitinized than are the males. Males, as he remarks, are common 
at light, Oligotoma saundersi , Westw., being the common species. The : 
nymphs he found gregarious under bricks and he figures the asymme¬ 
tric male appendages. 
We have found colonies of these delicate little insects in the shelter 
of the long dry culm-sheaths of the Giant Bamboo (Bambusa arun- 
dinacea), as also under 
bricks on the soil and in 
decaying leaves. They live 
in tubes of fine white silken 
material, which ramify over 
the sheath ; we were unable 
to find any except where 
the sheath had been exten¬ 
sively bored by a minute 
Scolytid and in captivity 
they refused to make tubes 
or to remain alive except 
on such sheaths ; whether 
they fed on the dust pro¬ 
duced by the Scolytid or 
on some other material could not be ascertained ; the quite small 
insects are white, and very active, running quickly along the 
tunnels and with equal facility backwards or forwards ; on seeing 
them scurrying backwards along the tube one is led to think that 
the anal cerci serve as the antennae do when the insect is running 
forwards. The half-grown nymph has a reddish head, the body 
whitish and soft. The student should consult Hagen’s monograph 
of the group published in the Canadian Entomologist, Vol. XVIII 
(1885), wherein 17 species are discussed. Ernbia Brahmina, Sss., 
was described in 1896 from Bombay (Mt. Schweiz. Ent. Ges., IX, 
p. 35f), and E. Latreillei, Ramb., in 1842 from Bombay, Mauritius and 
Made $ascar (Neuropteres, p. 312). 
Fig. 46 — Ol iOTOMA SAUNDERSI, MALE (LEFT). 
Oligotoma sp., female (right), x 4. 
