XII. NOTES ON THE NEUROPTERA IN THE COLLECTION OF THE INDIAN MUSEUM. By James G. Needham. The observations of the following pages are based on the study of a large series of miscellaneous Neuroptera belonging to the Indian Museum, sent to me by the Superintendent, Dr. Annandale, for study. With these were sent a considerable number of specimens from the collection of the Imperial Entomologist, Mr. Maxwell-Lefroy. Together, these specimens illustrate the greater part of the described Neuropterous fauna of the Indian empire. The entire known fauna in the Mantispidge was represented : the smallest proportion of it was present in the Odonata.^ This latter group has been collected a little more systematically perhaps than any other, but the specimens reside mainly in the collections of the European specialists who have described them, or in the British Museum. Of the true Neuroptera (Neuroptera s. str.) most of the Indian forms have been described by three British naturalists : by Francis Walker, in the Catalogue of Neuropterous Insects of the British Museum, and in vol. v of the Transactions of the Entomological Society of London; by J. O. Westwood in his Cabinet of Oriental Entomology ; and by Robert McLachlan in various scattered papers. Nearly all of Westwooci's species are in the collection, including his Ascalaphus ohscurus, a species long considered lost. The Perlidse of the collection are mostly new to science, which is not surprising, since but one species, was known from the whole of India. The Odonata, Ephemeridse, and Myrmeleonidae of the collection are mostly well known, and in the Hemerobiidse, Chryso-pidse, Ascalaphidae, and Perlidse occur the most interesting new forms and all the new genera. In the collection were a few Termites which, for want of any knowledge of the group, I was compelled to return unnamed. And likewise, not knowing the Trichoptera, with Dr. Annandale's con-sent, I turned them over to Dr. C Betten for study, and his report on them follows further on (p. 231). I have to express my grati-tude to Dr. Annandale for his patience in waiting through the ' By far the greater part of the collection of the Indiau Museum was named some years ago by the late Baron de Selys Longchamps, and therefore was not sent to Prof. Needham. — N. Annandale.
BioStor
