One section of Neuroptera contains some insects which undergo incomplete metamorphoses. The _Libellulæ_, the _Ephemeræ_, and the _Termites_, belong to this category. The insects belonging to the other section, in which are classed the _Phryganidæ_,[109] or Caddis Flies, the _Panorpatæ_, and the _Myrmelionides_, or Ant Lions, undergo complete metamorphoses. The pupæ of the first walk and live absolutely in the same way as the larvæ; only, at the moment of the last transformation, the skin of the pupa splits, and the perfect insect comes forth. In the case of the second, on the contrary, the pupa is motionless, inactive, and takes no food, as in the Hymenoptera, Coleoptera, &c. In spite of this diversity in their mode of development, all these insects resemble each other too much for us to divide the Order; from which it follows that we must not attach too much importance to differences of transformation by which the insect arrives at its perfect state. [109] These were separated from the Neuroptera and made a separate order, under the name of Trichoptera, by Kirby.--ED. The most interesting insects among the Neuroptera are the _Termites_, improperly called White Ants, on account of the great analogy which exists between their habits and those of ants. They constitute, by their way of living, a striking anomaly in the order in which their conformation places them. In fact, they live in very numerous societies, and build very solid and very extensive dwelling-places--quite Cyclopean or Titanic works in comparison to the tiny dimensions and weak and feeble appearance of the insect. (PLATE IX.) [Illustration: IX. Nests of White Ants.] Many travellers have spoken of these insects. They are met with in the savannahs of North America, in Guyana, in Africa, in New Holland, and even in Europe, whither they have been imported. M. de Prefontaine relates that, when he was travelling in Guyana, he saw the negroes besieging certain strange buildings, which he calls ant-hills. They dared not attack them, except from a distance, and with fire-arms, although they had taken the precaution of digging all round them a little fosse filled with water, in which the besieged would be drowned if they made a sortie. These were the termites' nests.