^SlPHEX. SPHEX. 
Generic Character. 
Os maxillis absque lingua. 
Antenna articulis decern. 
Ala plano-incumbentes ( nec 
plicatae).in omni sexu. 
Aciileus punctorius recon- 
ditus. 
Month with jaws, without 
tongue. 
Antenna of ten joints. 
Wings flat-incumbent, (not 
pleated,) in each sex. 
Sting concealed. 
-A.S the Insects of the genus Ichneumon deposit 
their eggs in the bodies of other living insects, so 
those of the genus Sphex deposit theirs in dead 
ones, in order that the young larvas, when hatched, 
may find their proper food. Thus the Sphex 
figulus of Linneeus, having found some convenient 
cavity for the purpose, seizes on a spider, and 
having killed it, deposits it at the bottom; then 
laying her egg in it, she closes up the orifice of 
the cavity with clay; the larva, which resembles 
the maggot of a bee, having devoured the spider, 
spins itself up in a dusky silken web, and changes 
into a chrysalis, out of which, within a certain 
number of days, proceeds the complete insect, 
which is of a black colour, with a slightly foot- 
stalked abdomen, the edges of the several seg- 
