2l6 



TRANSFORMATIONS OF INSECTS. 



North America. Miitilla Europ<^a is by no means an uncommon 

 insect ; the male is of a deep blue colour, has a red thorax, with 

 dusky wings, the margins of the first segments of the abdomen 

 being ornamented with silky hairs of a silver grey. The female 

 is black, its thorax is red, and it has three grey bands on the 

 first three rings of the body. The females are found in woods, 

 walking^ slowly upon the earth, and they may be seen entering 



AliUilla EuropiVa. 



holes in the earth, but nothing is satisfactorily known concerning 

 what they do there. 



In the engraving the male is represented flying, and the 

 females, which are without wings, are crawling over the ground, 

 coming out of a hole, and crawling upon a leaf. 



One author has satisfied himself that the females visit the 

 nests of large humble bees, and this assertion has caused them 

 to be considered the mothers of parasites, but several naturalists 

 have seen them attacking insects, and others have taken them in 

 their holes, where the remains of grasshoppers and of flies Avere 

 found, and these relics have been considofed the leavings of the 



