The forms composed in this tribe of insects are reckoned at present
to be the nearest resemblance to the theoretical progenitors of
the insects; in fact, Sir John Lubbock hints that they might well
be regarded not as insects at all, but rather as the surviving
representatives of a group formed by the ancestors of the whole
multitude of insect types.
[Illustration: Fig. 62.--Lepisma Saccharina (Mag.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 63.--Orchesella Rufescens (Mag.)]
The food of these creatures consists of decayed vegetable matter.
Three principal families may be recognised--viz., _Lepesmidæ_,
_Campodeidæ_, and _Japygidæ_.