. The Cambridge natural history. Zoology. 464 NEUROPTERA a small appendage. Only a few species of Ifantispa are found in Southern Europe; but the group has representatives in most of the warmer regions of the world, and will probably prove to be rather numerous in species. The front legs are used for the capture of prey in the same way as the somewhat similar front legs of the Mantidae. The transformations have been observed by Brauer ^ in the case of one of the European species, 3L styriaca. The eggs are numerous but very small, and are deposited in such a manner that each is borne by a long
. The Cambridge natural history. Zoology. 464 NEUROPTERA a small appendage. Only a few species of Ifantispa are found in Southern Europe; but the group has representatives in most of the warmer regions of the world, and will probably prove to be rather numerous in species. The front legs are used for the capture of prey in the same way as the somewhat similar front legs of the Mantidae. The transformations have been observed by Brauer ^ in the case of one of the European species, 3L styriaca. The eggs are numerous but very small, and are deposited in such a manner that each is borne by a long slender stalk, as in the lacewing flies. The larvae are hatched in autumn; they then hibernate and go for about seven months before they take any food. In the spring, when the spiders of the genus Lycosa have formed their bags of eggs, the minute Ifaniispa larvae (Fig. 30 8, A) find them out, tear a hole in the bag, and enter among the eggs; here they wait until the eggs have attained a fitting stage of development befoi'e they commence to E, mature larva. (After feed. Brauer founcl that they ate the spiders when these were quite young, and then changed their skin for the second time, the first moult having taken place when they were hatched from the egg. At this second moult the larva undergoes a considerable change of form ; it becomes unfit for locomotion, and the head loses the comparatively large size and high development it previously possessed. The Mantispa larva —only one of which flourishes in one egg-bag of a spider—under- goes this change in the midst of a mass of dead young spiders it has gathered together in a peculiar manner. It undergoes no further change of skin, and is full fed in a few days ; after which it spins a cocoon in the interior of the egg-bag of the spider, and changes to a nymph inside its larva - skin. ' Verh. zool-bot. Ges. Wien, xix. 1869, p. FiH. 308.—Mantispa styriaca. hatched, or lirst Ibrni Brauei-.) A, Larva newly. Please note th
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectzoology, bookyear1895
