Neuroptera

“ Some of the families of Neuroptera are similar in many points of structure and development to Insects of other Orders; thus Termitidae are somewhat allied to Blattidae, Perlidae to Phasmidae in Orthoptera, while the Phryganeidae or Trichoptera make a considerable approach to Lepidoptera. Some naturalists—among whom we may mention Burmeister and Grassi—unite our Aptera, Orthoptera, and most of our Neuroptera into a single Order called Orthoptera. Others treat our Neuroptera as consisting of eight or nine distinct Orders ”

“ Many other species live on different kinds of plants and trees.
[34]
ORDER NEUROPTERA.
Including the Dragon Flies, Lacewing Flies, Day Flies, Stone Flies, Caddis Flies, and their Allies.
Next to the butterflies and moths, the Neuroptera (or nerve-winged insects) , to which belong the Dragon Flies, Lacewing Flies, Day Flies, Stone Flies, Caddis Flies, and their allies, are undoubtedly the most beautiful members of the insect tribe. Though they cannot compete with the Lepidoptera in point of colouring, it is questionable whether they are not more graceful and elegant in appearance. ”

“ The Neuroptera, with their similar fore- and hind-wings and their campodeiform larvae, seem to stand nearest to the presumed isopteroid ancestry, but the imago and larva are often specialized. The campodeiform larvae of many Coleoptera are indeed far more primitive than the neuropteran larvae, and suggest to us that the Coleoptera—modified as their wing-structure has become—arose very early from the primitive metabolous stock. ”

“ The class Coleoptera now approaches the Neuroptera, and on each side the boundary we find larvæ digging pitfalls in the sand to catch their prey, and having tubular mandibles to extract its juices when caught. We find them spinning silken cocoons, in which they change into quiescent pupæ, incapable of taking nutriment; which may fairly be supposed a symptom of approach; but there is no insect whose imago I would venture to place on the circumference of the neuropterous circle at the point. ”

“ It is not improbable that in the primitive neuropteron, as the result of a mode of life like that of Mantispa, the quiescent life of the later stages graduated into a quiescent, inactive pupal life, allowing the changes going on in the internal organs to result in a complete metamorphosis, which was transmitted to the later Neuroptera, thus making the complete metamorphosis a fixed, normal condition. ”

“ The Neuroptera, or nerve-winged insects, form an order whose wings are divided up by horny nerves, or nervures, into such numbers of tiny cells, that they look as if they were made of the most delicate lace. ”

“ He considers that these ancient fossils may be classified with the existing Orders of Insects, though they cannot be placed in existing families; and he assigns the palaeozoic fossil Insects at present known, to the Orders Neuroptera and Orthoptera, and to the homopterous division of Hemiptera. The greater part of the species he looks on as Neuroptera, and places in six families—Megasecopterides, Protephemerides, Platypterides, Stenodictyopterides, Protodonates, and Protoperlides. ”

“ The campodeiform type is relatively unusual, but most of the Neuroptera have larvae of this kind, active, armoured creatures with long legs, though devoid of the tail-processes often associated with similar larvae among the Coleoptera. Such are the 'Ant-lions,' larvae of the exotic lacewing flies, which hunt small insects, digging a sandy pit for their unwary steps in the case of the best-known members of the group, some of which are found as far north as Paris. ”

“ That the termites preceded the bees and their neighbors, the common ants, in the order of development of social instincts, is a conclusion supported by the fact that the Neuroptera form the first group of insects which are preserved to us in the “records of the rocks.” Fossil Neuroptera occur in the Devonian rocks of North America; the first traces of insects allied to the bees and wasps being geologically more recent, and appearing in the oolitic strata. ”

“ Neuroptera, nū-rop′tėr-a, n.pl. an order of insects which have generally four wings marked with a network of many nerves:—sing. Neurop′teron; also Neurop′ter, Neurop′teran.—adjs. Neurop′teral, Neurop′terous, nerve-winged. [Gr. neuron, nerve, ptera, pl. of pteron, a wing.]
Neurose, nū′rōs, adj. nerved: having many nervures or veins, of an insect's wing, &c. ”

“ This case-maker is the larva from a fly which bears resemblances to the two families which stand on either side of it—the Lepidoptera, or true butterflies, and the Neuroptera, of which the dragon flies and other membranaceous winged insects are members. As soon as he enters the world, he begins to show his skill in tailoring, and by means of silken threads and gluten constructs his case of bits of stick, straw, dead leaves, or shells, in fact, whatever he can get, and as long as he retains the worm-like form the case is his castle, and he can defy the world. ”

“ The same may be said of the true Neuroptera, Trichoptera (Fig. 157) , the Coleoptera, and the Diptera, Lepidoptera, and Hymenoptera. As we have observed in the house fly, [27] the wings are evidently outgrowths of the meso- and metanotum; we have also observed this to be most probably the case in the Lepidoptera, from observations on a Tortrix in different stages of metamorphosis. It is also the case with the Hymenoptera, as we have observed in bees and wasps; [28] and in these forms, and probably all Hymenoptera, the wings are outgrowths of the scutal region of the notum. ”

“ The Neuroptera are not a very numerous body of insects compared with either the Coleoptera or Lepidoptera, but they contain some of the largest and most handsome insects known. The order is very well represented in the temperate zones, though the finest species are met with in the tropical parts of the world. Nearly 700 species are known to inhabit the British Isles. ”

“ The Campodea-form appears in most of the Pseudoneuroptera [Libellulids, Ephemerids, Perlids, Psocids and Termes] , Orthoptera, Coleoptera, Neuroptera, perhaps modified in the Strepsiptera [Stylops and Xenos] and Coccidæ in their first stage of development, and indeed in many of these at their first moult." Farther on he says, "A larger part of the most highly developed insects assume another larva-form, which appears not only as a later acquisition, through accommodation with certain definite relations, but also arises as such before our eyes. ”

“ Many of the Neuroptera were evidently of gigantic proportions, but most of the insects were of small size, and like the associated plants, are indicative of a temperate climate. They are most nearly allied to forms which now inhabit North America. ”

“ The neuroptera, or net-winged insects, florfliegen, gauze-flies, as they are called by the Germans, include the principal pets of the fly-fisher. Their bodies are long, [292] tapering and delicate; their wings, four, almost transparent and marked with net-like veins. They keep in continual motion for the purpose of catching smaller insects, on which they mainly feed, and generally deposit their eggs in the water, where the grubs live from one to two years on plants or other insects. ”

“ His 'Catalogue of British Neuroptera' was published by the Entomological Society in 1870. Meanwhile, as a zealous collector, he had brought together an unequalled series of specimens and maintained a voluminous correspondence at home and abroad relating to the study. ”

“ Hemiptera. These have also four wings; but the elytra are different, being half crustaceous, half membranaceous: the wings do not form a longitudinal suture, but extend the one over the other, as in the gryllus, grasshopper, &c.
3. Lepidoptera. Those which have four membranaceous wings covered with fine scales, appearing to the naked eye like powder or meal, as in the butterfly and moth.
4. Neuroptera. These have four membranaceous transparent wings, which are generally reticulated, the tail without a sting, as in the libellula, or dragon fly. ”

“ Embioptera: an ordinal term proposed for the Neuropterous family Embidae.
Hamabiosis: see symbiosis.
Heliophobic: loving darkness: applied to species that shun the light, like, e.g. Termites.
Heliotactic: light loving: applied to species that live in the open and in daylight.
Lestobiosis: see symbiosis.
Meron: in Neuroptera, a sclerite posterior to the coxa and below the epimeron: corresponds to the trochantine in Lepidoptera.
Metasternal wing: in some aquatic Coleoptera a leaf-like expansion above the coxal plates. ”

“ 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. ”

“ They all have feet, and the body is more or less flattened. (Fig. 560.)
II. Holometabola.—In this division we have for the first time a true larva, and a pupa stage as distinguished from the imago. Moreover, the insect at each stage is distinguished by radical differences in form, surroundings, and in the nature of the food, while the pupa is inactive, usually immovable, and incapable of taking any food, and is often protected by a cocoon spun by the larva. The holometabolous orders are the Neuroptera, Coleoptera, Mecoptera, Trichoptera, Lepidoptera, Siphonaptera, Diptera, and Hymenoptera. ”

“ Platyptera. Four net-veined wings; mouth parts adapted for biting (= Termitidae and Mallophaga, parts of our Neuroptera) .
5. Odonata. Wings net-veined, equal (= Odonata, a division of our Neuroptera) .
6. Plectoptera. Wings net-veined, unequal (= Ephemeridae, a part of our Neuroptera) .
7. Thysanoptera. Mouth beaklike but with palpi (= our Thysanoptera) .
8. Hemiptera. Mouth parts forming a beak for sucking. No palpi (= our Hemiptera) .
The above eight Orders form the group Ametabola, while the following eight constitute the Metabola:—
9. ”

“ The nervous system of insects varies not only among different classes and orders, but even in the same individual, in different stages of its development. The larva, or caterpillar, of a butterfly, for instance, presents a nervous system not very different from that met with in the centipede; while in the imago stage, or perfected insect, the same system has undergone some remarkable changes, leading to increased size of the cerebral ganglia, and also to further development of some of the ganglia pertaining to the ventral cord, with concentration or even suppression of others. ”

“ This type of insect gradually gave rise to the orders which now contain the largest number of species, including the beetles, moths, and flies. In many lines of this neuropteroid branch, as it is called, the larva has become adapted to a mode of life quite different from that of the adult. Many fly larvae, for example, live in rotting organic material or live as parasites within the tissues of other kinds of insects, whereas the adult flies often feed at flowers on pollen and nectar, visiting the site of the larval habitat only to lay eggs. ”

“ In any case this region is pushed out during the formation of the pupa within the final larval cuticle, so that the imaginal head with its contained brain, its compound eyes, and its complex feelers, takes its rightful place at the front end of the insect.
The mention of the brain suggests a few brief remarks on the changes in the internal organs during insect transformation. There are no imaginal discs for the nervous system; the brain, nerve-cords and ganglia of the butterfly or bluebottle are the direct outcome of those of the caterpillar or maggot. ”

“ The nerve-centres are therefore here all dorsal, and the notochord or skeleton lies between these and the digestive or alimentary canal. The skeleton of the clam or snail is purely protective and a hindrance to locomotion. That of the insect is almost purely locomotive, but external, that of the vertebrate purely locomotive and internal. It does not lie outside even of the nervous system, although this system especially required, and was worthy of, protection. It does not protect even the brain; the skull of vertebrates is an after-thought. It is almost the deepest seated of all organs. ”

“ The stimulus of the nerve cells comes from something outside of them, either from the environmental forces of the external world or from sub- stances formed by other cells within the body. Nothing is known definitely of the internal stimuli of insects, but there can be no doubt that substances are formed by the physiological activiries of the insect tissues, similar to the horrnones, or secretions of the ductless glands of other animais, that control action in other organs either directly or through the nervous system. ”

“ Now these sources of locomotion, these nervous centres, consist of a certain number of ganglia, more numerous in the larva, less so in the perfect insect, and arranged on the median line of the under surface in a string of beads more or less distant and connected by a double ribbon of nervous tissue. In all insects which have reached the perfect state the ganglia called thoracic, i.e. those furnishing nerves to wings and feet and governing their movements, are three in number. ”