ASILUXE. 395 



The tibiae are spurred ; the larvae slender, cylindrical ; the 

 body widening posteriorly, terminates in two points, while 

 the pupa is naked, incomplete, with transverse rows of 

 spines on the abdomen, becoming largest at the tip. The 

 larva of Leptis vermileo Fabr. lives at the bottom of holes 

 which it makes in sand, and thus, like the ant-lion, entraps 

 other insects. 



CYRTID.E Loew. Known by the greatly inflated thorax and 

 abdomen this family is of but small extent, comprising species 

 which have the proboscis rather obsolete, or long and bent be- 

 neath the body. Such are the genera C'/rtns, Acrocera and 

 Oncodes. The genus Hirmoneura represents the family HIR- 



MONEUKID.E of LoCW. 



MYDASID^E Leach. This family, represented in this country 

 by the single genus Midas, is easily known by the large size of 

 the species, and by the long clavate antennae, the fleshy labium, 

 and the minute empodium. The larva and pupa are 

 said by Harris to almost exactly resemble those of 

 the rapacious Asilidae. The larva of Midas davatus 

 Drury is cyliudiiual, whitish, tapering before and 

 almost rounded behind, with two spiracles in the last 

 segment but one of the abdomen, and is two inches 

 long. It lives and undergoes its transformations in 



^ ^ 



decaying logs. (Harris.) The pupa (Fig. 31 6, drawn 



from a specimen in the Harris collection) is about 



an inch and a quarter long, brown, nearly cylindrical, 



with a forked tail ; there are eight spines on the forepart of 



the body. Midas fulvipes Walsh has similar habits and its 



transformations are similar ; the larva is insectivorous. 



ASILID^E (Asilici) Latreille. These large, stout, Bobber-flies, 

 as the Germans style them, are covered with stiff hairs, and 

 have long abdomens. The third joint of the antennae is sim- 

 ple ; the labium forms a horny sheath, and the empodium is 

 like a horny bristle. They are rapacious, seizing other insects 

 and frying off with them, like the fossorial hymenoptera. Da- 

 sypogon (Fig. 271, 3, wing) has the second longitudinal vein 







