3523. All the wings alike and membranous; maxillæ with mostly large eyes; abdomen soft.
These Insects which, on account of their delicate wings, are known with us by the name of Flohrfliegen, live mostly upon flesh, and many of them by capturing living prey. Many undergo a short pupa stage. Many live in the water and have, too, branchiæ, whereby they strikingly remind us of the Crustacea, especially the Branchiopoda.
Like the Crustacea, or in accordance with the two first cohorts of their class, they divide into two families.
Fam. 1. Tracheopteroid Neuroptera, Nagbolden.
Do not subsist by rapine, but gnaw slowly animal and vegetable matters; many also as flies eat no longer.
Alliance 1. Dipteroid Neuroptera, Kieferläuse. No wings; gnaw skin, feathers and hair, mostly Bird-lice—Philopterus, Liotheum.
Alliance 2. Hymenopteroid Neuroptera, Blumen-and Mulmlaüse, Thrips, Psocus, Termes.
Alliance 3. Lepidopteroid Neuroptera, Phryganeidæ (Wassermotten.)
Fam. 2. Dictyopteroid Neuroptera, Raubbolden.
Alliance 4. Typical Neuroptera, Flohrfliegen, Panorpidæ, Hemerobiidæ, Myrmeleonidæ.