. The Cambridge natural history. Zoology. 448 NEUROPTERA The species are rather numerous, and have been recently monographed by ' The three or four British species of the genus are all rare Insects, and occur only in wooded regions. The Eaphidiides, like the Sialides, have a carnivorous larva, which, however, is terrestrial in habits, feeding, it would appear, chiefly on Insects that harl^our in old timber. The snake-fly larvae (Fig. 29 2) are very ingenious in their manner of escaping, which is done by an extremely rapid wriggling backwards. They are capable of undergoing very prolon
. The Cambridge natural history. Zoology. 448 NEUROPTERA The species are rather numerous, and have been recently monographed by ' The three or four British species of the genus are all rare Insects, and occur only in wooded regions. The Eaphidiides, like the Sialides, have a carnivorous larva, which, however, is terrestrial in habits, feeding, it would appear, chiefly on Insects that harl^our in old timber. The snake-fly larvae (Fig. 29 2) are very ingenious in their manner of escaping, which is done by an extremely rapid wriggling backwards. They are capable of undergoing very prolonged fasts, and then alter in form a good deal, Ijecoming shorter and more shrivelled; Fig. 292 is taken from a specimen that had been fasting for several weeks. They are excessively voracious, and hunt after the fashion of beasts of prey; their habits have been described Ijy Stein," who states that he kept a larva from August to the end of May of the following year without food; it then died in a shrivelled-up state. The larva of the snake-fly changes to a pupa that is remarkalily intermediate in form between the perfect Insect and the larva; the eyes, legs, wing-pads, and ovi- positor being but little different from those of the imago, while the general form is that of the larva, and the peculiar elonga- tion of the neck of the imago is absent. This pupa differs from that of Sialis in the important particular that before undergoing its final ecdysis it regains its activity and is able to run about. The internal anatomy of Baphidia has been treated by Loew,^ and is of a very remarkable character; we can liere only mention that the salivary glands consist of a pair of extremely elongate tubes, that there is a very definite paunch attached as an ap- pendage to one side of the crop, and that the most peculiar character consists of the fact that, according to Loew, four of the six Malpighian tubes have not a free extremitv, being attached. Fig. 292.—Raphidia notata. larva. N
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