Directions for Collecting and Preserving Insects. Charles V. Riley
whatever animal matter—as grease and blood—or decaying vegetable matter it can find.
“Order ORTHOPTERA (ορθος, straight; πτερον, wing), or Straight-winged Insects. Characterized by having the front wings (called tegmina) straight and usually narrow, pergameneous or parchment-like, thickly veined, and overlapping at tips when closed; the hind wings large and folding longitudinally like a fan. Transformations incomplete.
Fig. 28.—A Locust (Acridium americanum).
Fig. 29.—A Tree-cricket (Orocharis saltator).
a, female; b, male.
Fig. 30.—The Croton Bug or German Cockroach
(Phyllodromia germanica). a, first stage; b, second stage; c, third stage; d, fourth stage; e, adult; f, adult female with egg-case; g, egg-case—enlarged; h, adult with wings spread—all natural size except g.
“The insects of this order have a lengthened body and very robust jaws, with a correspondingly large head. The legs are strong, and fashioned either for grasping, running, climbing, jumping, or burrowing. As in the other orders, where the transformations are incomplete, the young differ little from the parent, except in the want of wings; and in many instances even this difference does not exist, as there are numerous species which never acquire wings. There are no aquatic Orthoptera. Some are omnivorous, others carnivorous, but most of them herbivorous. They form four distinct sections: 1st, Cursoria, Cockroaches; 2d, Raptatoria, Mantes; 3d, Ambulatoria, Walking-sticks; 4th, Saltatoria, Crickets, Grasshoppers, and Locusts.
Fig. 31.—Hind wing of Earwig.
(From Comstock.)
Fig. 32.—An Earwig.
(From Packard.)
“Suborder Dermaptera[2] (δερμα, skin; πτερον, wing), or Earwigs, consisting of the single family Forficulidæ, which may be placed with the Orthoptera. They are rare insects with us, but very common in Europe, where there prevails a superstition that they get into the ear and cause all sorts of trouble. The front wings are small and leathery; the hind ones have the form of a quadrant, and look like a fan when opened; and the characteristic feature is a pair of forceps-like appendages at the end of the body, best developed in the males. They are nocturnal in habit, hiding during the day in any available recess. The female lays her eggs in the ground, and singularly enough, broods over them and over her young, the latter crowding under her like chicks under a hen.”
Fig. 33.—A Dragon-fly (Libellula trimaculata). (From Packard.)
“Order NEUROPTERA (νευρον, nerve; πτερον, wing), or Nerve-winged insects. Characterized by having the wings reticulate with numerous veins so as to look like net-work. The order forms two natural divisions, the first including all those which undergo a complete, and the second, called Pseudo-neuroptera (Dictyotoptera, Burmeister), those which undergo an incomplete metamorphosis. * * * The insects of this order are, as a whole, more lowly organized, and more generally aquatic, than either of the others. A natural arrangement of them is difficult on account of their degradational character. They present forms which are synthetic and closely approach the other orders, and the evolutionist naturally looks upon them as furnishing an idea of what the archetypal forms of our present insects may have been. They are, as a rule, large and sluggish, with the body parts soft and little specialized, and the muscles weak. Their remains are found in the Devonian and Carboniferous deposits.
“They are mostly carnivorous, and with the exception of the White-ants and certain Book-lice they none of them affect man injuriously, while some are quite beneficial.”
The first division of this order, or the Neuroptera proper, characterized by having incomplete metamorphoses, may be considered under the three following suborders:
Fig. 34.—Caddis-fly, larva and its case.
(From Packard.)
“Suborder Trichoptera (θριξ, hair; πτερον, wing), or Caddis-flies, containing the single family Phryganeidæ, and placed with the Neuroptera, though bearing great affinities with the Lepidoptera. Every good disciple of Walton and lover of the “gentle art” knows the value of the Caddis-fly, or Water-moth, as bait. These flies very much resemble certain small moths, the scales on the wings of the latter being replaced in the former with simple hairs. The larvæ live in the water and inhabit silken cases, which are usually cylindrical and covered with various substances, according to the species, or the material most conveniently obtained by the individual.”
Fig. 35.—Panorpa or Scorpion-fly.
(From Packard.)
Suborder Mecoptera (μηκος, length; πτερον, wing). This suborder includes a peculiar group of insects, the most striking characteristics of which are the mouth-parts, which are prolonged into a rostrum or beak. The wings are long and narrow, and of nearly equal size. The abdomen of the male is constricted near its posterior end and terminates in long clasping organs from which these insects obtain the common name of Scorpion-flies.
The larvæ of one genus (Panorpa) are remarkable for their great resemblance to the larvæ of Lepidoptera. They have, however, eight pairs of abdominal legs. The habits of these insects are not well known, but they are supposed to be generally.
Fig. 36.—Lace-wing fly. a, eggs, b, larva, c, cocoons, d, fly with left wings removed.
Fig. 37.—An Ant-lion (Myrmeleon). (From Packard.)
Fig. 38.—Myrmeleon
larva.
Fig. 39.—Mantispa with side view beneath. (From Packard.)
Suborder Neuroptera. This group as restricted by modern authors is a small one, including the largest species, as in the Hellgrammite, the Lace-wing Flies, the Ant-lions, and the Mantispas representing the families, Sialidæ and Hemerobiidæ, with their subfamilies. The first includes the so-called Hellgrammite Fly (Corydalus cornutus), one of our largest and most striking insects, the larvæ of which is known as Dobsons by anglers, and is aquatic and carnivorous in habit. The Hemerobiidæ is a large family, comprising, as a rule, delicate insects with rather ample gauzy wings. The larvæ are predaceous. The common Lace-wing flies are among our most beneficial insects, destroying plant-lice and other soft-bodied species. To the same family belongs the Ant-lion (Myrmeleon), the larvæ of