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Lace-winged Insects

(Order Neuroptera.)

There was a time, and it extended down to comparatively recent years, when all of the insects which would not fit into any of the five principal orders, Hymenoptera, Diptera, Lepidoptera, Orthoptera, or Hemiptera, were placed in the order Neuroptera, but entomologists of late years have changed all that, and the old group Neuroptera, as it was formerly considered, has been divided up into a number of distinct orders.

The first step was to separate those which had a complete metamorphosis from those in which the metamorphosis was incomplete. This resulted in the establishment of only one new order, the so-called Pseudoneuroptera, which included those in which the metamorphosis was incomplete, but the Pseudoneuroptera has again been split up, and we have the Thysanura, the May-flies, the dragon-flies, the white-ants, the Psocids and book-lice, the bird-lice, the caddis flies and the scorpion flies, all forming distinct orders, which are treated elsewhere in this work. There remain then those of the old order Neuroptera in which the perfect insect has a biting mouth, two pairs of membranous wings with many veins, and in which there is a complete metamorphosis, the larva being quite dissimilar from the adult, and moreover, in the adults in no case is the head prolonged into a beak-like structure. Even under this restriction of the old order Neuroptera we have still a number of diverse forms in the order, and these are separated into seven well-marked families. It would not be surprising if the old order were still further split up, and as a matter of fact a distinct ordinal name has been suggested for a group of five of these families.

The biting mouth-parts of the Neuroptera as limited at present are not used for the purpose of eating vegetation to any extent, since practically all of the insects in this group are carnivorous and feed upon other insects. Some of them are aquatic, but the majority of them live on land, and wherever their prey abounds. Many members of the group are most beneficial in the great number of injurious insects which they destroy, while others are few in number of species and rare in individuals, and some of them prey upon beneficial insects.

Table of Families

Hind wings with an anal space . . . . . 1

Hind wings with no anal space . . . . . 2

1--Prothorax quadrangular when seen from above . . . . . Family Sialidae

Prothorax long and cylindrical . . . . . Family Raphidiidoe

2--Front legs formed for grasping . . . . . Family Mantispidoe

Front legs of the ordinary type . . . . . 3

3--Wings covered with a whitish powder . . . . . Family Coniopterygidoe

Wings not powdered . . . . . 4

4--Antennae clubbed at end . . . . . Family Myrmeleonidoe

Antennae not clubbed at end . . . . . 5

5--Antennae moniliform (beaded) . . . . . Family Hemerobiidoe

6--Antennae setiform (bristle shaped) . . . . . Family Chrysopidoe