210 THE PANORPINA. 



insects; of the larva notliing is known^ but it pro- 

 bably lives in the ground^ as the abdomen of the 

 female is capable of considerable elongation^ evidently 

 to enable her to deposit her eggs in crevices of the 

 earth, and the pupa has been found at the depth of 

 about an inch in moist earth. 



Perhaps the most singular species of this tribe in- 

 habiting Britain is the little Boreus hy emails , which also 

 occurs on the continent of Europe,, especially in the 

 north, and in mountainous districts. It measures 

 about the sixth of an inch in length, and is of a green 

 or blackish colour, with the legs and antenn?e reddish, 

 the latter black towards the apex. In the male the 

 wings are represented by stout, filiform, pointed 

 organs; in the female they are quite rudimentary. 

 The latter is also furnished with an acute red ovi- 

 positor, about half the length of the body. Curious 

 as is the structure of these little creatures, their 

 habits are still more extraordinary : they are found 

 in midwinter hopping about upon th^ snow, or at a 

 somewhat earlier period amongst moss, but are never 

 seen at any other season of the year ; and two North 

 American species^ recently described by Dr. Asa 

 Eitch, have the same curious habits. 



Scarcely less singular in their form than the Scor- 

 pion-flies are the insects of the next tribe, of which 

 one species, the Rhaphidia ophiopsis, occurs not very 

 uncommonly in woods and on hedges in the neigh- 

 bourhood of streams. This insect, like the rest of 

 the tribe of the Rhaphidiina, of which it may be 

 taken as the type, is remarkable for the great length 

 and mobility of its prothorax, which serves as a long 



