REPORT OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST 239 



Habits of Some European Species. 



While our common species, as noted above, can travel backward 

 only, others have different habits. The larvae, as observed by Brauer in 

 Vienna, of a certain species o{ Dendroleon, D. pafitheri?ius,h.d.?,i\\e power 

 of walking forward in the normal manner and apparently captures its 

 prey by lurking in concealment and, when the victim is near, rushing 

 upon it rapidly : the larva of this insect is known to climb trees. Prof 

 Westwood, in the Transactions of the E?itomologkal Society of Londo?i, 

 1888, published some interesting notes, together with two plates, on the 

 life-history of several Ascalaphides, which are quite closely related to the 

 ordinary ant-lions. The eggs of a species of Ascalaphus have been ob- 

 served to the number of 64 to 75 deposited in a double row at the ex- 

 tremity of a small twig, and guarded by certain curious structures 

 designed to protect the eggs and also to prevent the young from rambling 

 beyond their protection until able to care for themselves. These repagula, 

 as they are termed, are placed in circles about the eggs and are 

 deposited by the female with as much care as the eggs themselves: 

 they are described as elongate, pedunculate, subhyaline, reddish. Dr. 

 Brauer, of Vienna, has observed the eggs of Ascalaphus hutigaricus 

 placed in a double row along a blade of grass, from which the young 

 larvae escaped by cutting an oval lid at one end of the egg. It is stated 

 that Ascalaphus lofigicornis also oviposits in a double row on grass, and 

 that the young larvae make no pitfall but lie in wait under small stones 

 whence they seize their prey, such as small flies and other insects. 

 The larvae of a Ceylonese species, Ascalaphus \Helicomitus\ ? ijisimul*ns 

 make no pitfalls ; some young ones were found ranged in a single row 

 along the stem of a hly with the abdomen of each covered by the one 

 behind it and with their jaws widely extended: in this manner they 

 waited for prey to literally walk into their jaws. When placed in a box 

 they scarcely ever moved, but lay close to and over each other and 

 awaited their prey. After molting three times, they transformed in a man- 

 ner similar to our native species. 



United States Species of Ascalaphinae. 



Six species of AscalaphitKv are listed by Banks as occurring in the 

 United States ; five are southern forms, and one is found as far north as 

 Massachusetts. Possibly it was this species of which a brief notice is 

 given in my Seventh Report (pp. 318, 319), as having been taken beneath 

 a carpet in Albany county, and moving both forward and backward with 



