of the male is a character found in no other order of the Hexapoda.
See special Dragon-fly.
Sub-class Endopterygota
Order Neuroptera.
The insects retained in the order Neuroptera as restricted by modern systematists are distinguished from the preceding orders by the presence of a resting pupal stage in the life-history, so that a “complete metamorphosis” is undergone. Structurally the Neuroptera are distinguished by elongate feelers, a large, free prothorax, a labium with the inner lobes of the second maxillae fused together to form a median ligula, membranous, net-veined wings without hairy covering, those of the two pairs being usually alike, the absence of abdominal cerci, and the presence of six or eight Malpighian tubes. The larvae are active and well-armoured, upon the whole of the “campodeiform” type, but destitute of cerci; they are predaceous in habit, usually with slender, sickle-shaped mandibles, wherewith they pierce various insects so as to suck their juices. The order contains nine families, most of which are wide in their geographical distribution. Fossil Neuroptera occur in the Lias and even in the Trias if the relationships of certain larvae have been correctly surmised.
The Sialidae or alder-flies (q.v.) differ from other Neuroptera in the jaws of the larva—which is aquatic, breathing by paired, jointed abdominal gills—resembling those of the imago, and being adapted for the mastication of solid food. Some American genera (Corydalis) which belong to this family are gigantic among insects and their males possess enormous mandibles. The Raphidiidae or snake-flies (q.v.) are remarkable for the long, narrow, tapering prothorax which gives the appearance of a constricted neck, while the female has a long ovipositor. Both these families are very sparingly represented in our fauna.
The Myrmeleonidae are large insects with short clubbed feelers on their prominent heads, and two pairs of closely similar net-veined wings, with regular oblong areolets at the tips. Their predaceous, suctorial larvae are the well-known ant-lions (q.v.). No members of this family inhabit our islands, though a few species occur in neighbouring parts of the continent. The same is the case with the allied Ascalaphidae, which are distinguished from the Myrmeleonidae by their elongate feelers—as long as the body—and by the irregular apical areolets of the wings. The curious Nemopteridae have slender feelers and very long strap-shaped hind-wings. The Mantispidae are remarkable among the Neuroptera for their elongate prothorax, raptorial fore-legs and hypermetamorphic life-history, the young campodeiform larva becoming transformed into a fat cruciform grub parasitic on young spiders or wasp-larvae (see Mantis-fly). The last-named two families are confined to warm regions of the earth. The lacewing-flies (q.v.), however, of which there are two families, the Hemerobiidae and Chrysopidae, whose larvae feed on Aphids, sucking their juices, are represented in our fauna. So are the tiny Coniopterygidae, which are covered with a white powdery secretion, and have very small hind-wings. Their larvae resemble those of the lacewings, attacking scale-insects and sucking their juices.
Order Mecaptera.
This small order was founded (1869) by F. Brauer—under the name of Panorpata—for the small family of the Panorpidae or scorpion-flies (q.v.). The name Mecaptera is due to Packard. They may be distinguished from the Neuroptera by the elongation of the head into a beak, the small prothorax, the narrow, elongate wings with predominantly longitudinal neuration, the presence of abdominal cerci and the cruciform larva. They are generally but sparingly distributed over the earth's surface and can be traced back in time to the early Jurassic epoch.
Order Trichoptera.
The caddis-flies (q.v.) constitute this order, the name of which (suggested by H. Burmeister) indicates the hairy covering of the wings. They are abundantly distinct from the Neuroptera and Mecaptera, through the absence of mandibles in the imago, the maxillae—both pairs of which possess the typical inner and outer lobes and jointed palps—forming a suctorial apparatus. The feelers are long, slender and many-jointed. While the fore-wings are elongate and narrow, the hind-wings are broad, with a folding anal area. At the base of each wing projects a dorsal lobe—the jugum—and the neuration is predominantly longitudinal, resembling so closely that of the lower Lepidoptera (q.v.) that a nearer relationship of the Trichoptera to that order than to any group of the old Linnean Neuroptera is certain. Fossil Trichoptera occur in rocks of Liassic age.
Frequently the whole of the Trichoptera are included in a single family, but most special students of the order recognize seven families. In all Trichoptera the maxillary palps of the female are five-segmented. The family Phryganeidae have males with four-segmented hairy palps; the larvae inhabit stagnant water and make cases of vegetable fragments. In the Limnephilidae the maxillary palp is three-segmented in the male, the larvae are variable in habit, many forming cases of snail-shells. The males of the Sericostomatidae have two or three segmented palps; their larvae inhabit running water and make cases of grains of sand, or of small stones. In the Leptoceridae, Hydropsychidae, Rhyacophilidae and Hydroptilidae the palps of the males have five segments like those of the females. The stone-built cases of the carnivorous Hydropsychid larvae are familiar objects in the water of swift streams.
Bibliography.—For a general account of the various orders mentioned in the present article see D. Sharp, Cambridge Natural History, v. (London, 1895); L. C. Miall, Nat. Hist. Aquatic Insects (London, 1895); J. G. Needham, &c., Aquatic Insects in New York State (Albany, N.Y., 1903); F. Brauer, Die Neuropteren Europas (Wien, 1876); J. A. Palmén, Zur Morphologie des Tracheensystems (Leipzig, 1877). Noteworthy writings on the special orders are: Plecoptera: F. J. Pictet, Histoire naturelle des insectes Neuroptères-Perlides (Génève, 1871–1872); A. Imhof, Beiträge zur Anatomie von Perla maxima (Aarau, 1881); K. J. Morton, Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. (1894–1896). Isoptera: For Embiidae see H. A. Hagen, Canadian Entom. xvii. (1885); G. Enderlein, Zool. Anz. xxvi. (1903); K. W. Verhoeff, Abhandl. K. Leopold. Carolin. Akad. lxxxii. (1904). For Termitidae see Termites. Corrodentia: For Copeognatha see G. Enderlein, Ann. Hist. Nat. Mus. Nat. Hungar, i. (1903), and Zool. Jahrb. Syst. xviii. (1903); R. McLachlan, “British Species” in Ent. Mo. Mag. iii. (1867). For Mallophaga see E. Piaget, Les Pediculines (Leiden, 1880–1885); F. Grosse, Zeits. wiss. Zoolog. xlii. (1885). For Ephemeroptera and Odonata, see May-fly and Dragon-fly. Neuroptera (sens. str.): H. A. Hagen, Proc. Boston, Nat. Hist. Soc. xv. (1873); F. Brauer, Verh. Zool. bot. Gesells. Wien, xix. (1869); R. McLachlan, “British Neuroptera Planipennia” in Trans. Entom. Soc. (1868). Mecaptera: F. Brauer (loc. cit.). Trichoptera: R. McLachlan, Trichoptera of the European Fauna (London, 1874–1880), and “British Trichoptera” in Trans. Entom. Soc. (1865 and 1882); R. Lucas, Arch. f. Naturg. lix. (1893); G. Ulmer, Abhandl. naturhist. Verein Hamburg, xviii. (1903); A. Thienemann, Zoolog. Jahrb. System, xxii. (1905). (G. H. C.)
NEUSALZ, a town of Germany, in the Prussian province of
Silesia, on the Oder, 20 m. by rail N.W. of Glogau. Pop. (1905)
13,002. It has three Evangelical churches, one of which belongs
to the Herrnhut brotherhood, a Roman Catholic church and an
orphanage. Its largest industry is, perhaps, the manufacture
of thread; there are also in the town ironworks, breweries,
shipbuilding yards and electrical works. Neusalz became a town
in 1743.
See Bronisch, Geschichte von Neusalz an der Oder (Neusalz, 1893).
NEUSS, a town of Germany, in the Prussian Rhine province, lies 4 m. to the W. of Düsseldorf and 112 m. from the W. bank of the Rhine, with which it is connected by the Erft canal. It lies at the junction of lines to Cologne, Viersen, Zevenaar (Holland), Düsseldorf, Duren and Rheydt. Pop. (1905) 30,494, of whom 95% were Catholics. The chief building in the town is the church of St Quirinus, a remarkably fine example of the transition from the Round to the Pointed style; and there are six other Roman Catholic churches, two Protestant churches and a gymnasium, which contains a collection of Roman antiquities. The town hall was built in the 17th and altered in the 18th century. The old fortifications are now laid out as a promenade encircling the town. Neuss produces oil and meal, and also manufactures woollen stuffs, chemicals and paper, bricks and iron-ware. Its markets for cereals are among the most important in Prussia, and it is also the centre of a brisk trade in cattle, coals, building materials and the products of its various manufactories.
Neuss, the Novaesium of the Romans, frequently mentioned by Tacitus, formerly lay close to the Rhine, and was the natural centre of the district of which Düsseldorf has become the chief town. Drusus, brother of the emperor Tiberius, threw a bridge across the Rhine here, and his name is preserved in the Drusustor, the lower half of which is of Roman masonry. In 1474–1475 Charles the Bold of Burgundy besieged the town in vain for eleven months, during which he lost 10,000 men; but it was taken and sacked by Alexander Farnese in 1586. Since 1887 extensive excavations have been made of the foundations of a huge Roman camp, and many valuable Roman treasures have been unearthed.
See C. Tücking, Geschichte der Stadt Neuss (Düsseldorf, 1891); F. Schmitz, Der Neusser Krieg, 1474–1475 (Bonn, 1896); W. Effmann, Die St Quirinus Kirche zu Neuss (Düsseldorf, 1890); and Band xx. of the Chroniken der deutschen Städte.
NEUSTADT (Polish, Prudnik), a town of Germany, in the
Prussian province of Silesia, on the river Prudnik, 60 m. by rail
S.E. of Breslau. It has four Roman Catholic churches and one
Evangelical. Pop. (1905) 20,187, the greater part of whom are
