The Trichoptera are also placed by some entomologists in a distinct order, on account of the peculiarity in their wings being clothed with hairs. They, however, present so many points both in habits and structure, analogous with the true Neuroptera, that we have retained them as a sub-division of the Order.
TABULAR VIEW
OF THE
PRINCIPAL FAMILIES OF THE NEUROPTERA.
Sub-Order 1.—Planipennia.
The Planipennia contains the most typical forms of the Neuroptera. This sub-order is subdivided into six families, four only of which contain representatives in the British Isles. They are most abundant in the tropical parts of the world, where also the most handsome and curious forms occur.
Fig. 43.—Myrmeleon Formicarius.
Family 1, Myrmeleontidæ.—The Ant Lions are the most familiar and important members of this family. The common Ant Lion (Myrmeleon europæus), which is abundant in sandy places in the south of Europe, is a slender and elegant creature, with large finely reticulated rings. The larva, to which the name of "Ant Lion" properly belongs, is of a stout form and a greyish-yellow colour, covered with warty processes and with hairs. Its food consists of ants and other small insects, which it captures by a singularly ingenious arrangement, namely, by means of a funnel-shaped pitfall which it constructs in the sand, and at the bottom of which it lies. When any unfortunate insect ventures too near, the Ant Lion sends up a shower of sand, and the victim in its consternation falls down the pit, where it is speedily seized and devoured.
Other species of ant lions are known to occur on the continent of Europe, but none hitherto have been discovered to inhabit this country.