234 THE XYLOPHAGA. 



tribe, may, however, be met with pretty frequently 

 near London, in June, especially in the neighbour- 

 hood of willows, upon the wood of which the larva 

 feeds. It measures from one-half to three-quarters 

 of an inch in length, and is of a black colour, with 

 the legs and a broad band across the middle of the 

 abdomen red ; the head and thorax usually exhibit a 

 few white specks, and there is a small white spot on 

 each side of nearly all the segments of the abdomen. 

 But the creature is most remarkable for the form of 

 the head, and the mode in which this is attached to 

 the thorax. The head looks like a little black ball, 

 supported upon a slender neck ; and on examination, 

 we find that the latter springs from the lower part of 

 the front of the thorax, and turns a little up so as to 

 be inserted beneath the hinder part of the head, 

 which is thus thrown upwards more than is usual in 

 the Hymenoptera. It is from this peculiarity that 

 Linnaeus gave the name of Dromedarius to this spe- 

 cies, and another British species is called X. Camelus. 



If the insects of the two preceding tribes, which 

 form the aberrant section of the Hymenoptera, are to 

 be regarded, taking a narrow view of entomological 

 matters, as enemies of the human race, from the 

 injury which many of them occasionally inflict upon 

 our plants and trees, — many species of the remainder 

 of the order, the typical or Petiolate Hymenoptera, 

 must be enrolled in the ranks of our insect friends, 

 as a very great number of the species are continually, 

 although unconsciously, employed in conferring bene- 

 fits upon us, for which, in most instances at all events, 

 we are not sufficiently grateful. Of those which, 



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