In the spring, one meets in the woods with insects having large heads and elongated thoraces. The females have a long auger, with which to deposit their eggs under the bark of trees, where their larvæ, which feed on insects, and twist themselves about like small serpents, live. The pupæ are also very active; they resemble the adults very much, and have the wings laid against the body. These insects, which are met with everywhere, but always in small numbers, are the Raphidias, which we see represented (Figs. [396], [397], [398]) in the state of larva, pupa, and adult, and the Mantispas ([Fig. 399]), one species of which is common in the south of Europe.
Fig. 400.—Semblis lutarius, imago, pupa, and larva.
M. Blanchard classes in the same tribe the genus Semblis, whose larvæ are aquatic, with scaly heads, provided with eyes, and with curved mandibles and short antennæ. The larvæ and the pupæ breathe, like those of the Ephemeræ, by articulated external processes, or gills, analogous to those of fishes. Nevertheless the pupæ live on land, not in water. They hide themselves in the earth at the foot of trees, and the adult issues forth at the end of a fortnight, leaving its pupa skin behind. It lives but a few days. The female lays her eggs on reeds, stones, &c. [Fig. 400] represents the Mud Semblis in its three states.
Fig. 401.—Ant-lion (Myrmeleo formicarius).
We now come to those Neuroptera which undergo complete metamorphoses. They are the Myrmeleonidæ, of which the Ant-lion (Myrmeleo) is the most prominent type, and the Phryganidæ, or Caddis Flies.