358 NOTES ON AUSTRALIAN NEUROPTERA AND THEIR LIFE-HISTORIES. By Walter W. Froggatt, F.L.S. The Neuroptera treated of in this paper, with one exception [Bittacus australis), all belong to the Family Hemerohiidcp. This has been subdivided into seven Subfamilies containing a number of very handsome lace-wings, of which the ant-lions are probably the best known. Although nearly fifty years have elapsed since most of the Australian species were described, little or nothing has been recorded about their habits or transformations; yet several species are common in the neighbourhood of Sydney, and the funnel-shaped pits of the larval ant-lions are common in any dry sheltered sandy place. I am not aware that anj^one has kept the larvae and bred the perfect insects so that the species could be determined. All our known species have been described from dead, shrivelled, and sometimes very old and mutilated specimens, obtained from collectors without any definite habitats; and, as in the case of many of Walker's descriptions, in which colour and size are the chief characters given, when the living or freshly-captured insects are examined their characters do not agree always with those mentioned in the original descriptions. Through the kindness of Dr. Sharp, of the Cambridge Uni-versity Museum, to whom I submitted a number of t3^pical Neuroptera for determination, and after a careful examination of the specimens in the Macleay Museum, in conjunction with the descriptions of Leach and Walker, I have been able to get my specimens identified and named. During the last few years, while visiting the country districts on departmental work, I have had opportunities of collecting the larvce of some of these insects and breeding out the imagines.
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