226 [February, 



We now come to a series of families or groups remarkable for 

 the beautifully close network of tlieir wings, wbicli, however, gives 

 them no jDowers of flight equal to that of the dragon-fly, and they are, 

 for the most part, feeble insects easily captured. 



MynneleonidcB {Ant-lions). — A very extensive family, tolerably 

 well represented in Europe, but absent from Britain ; furnished with 

 sliort clubbed antennsB. The peculiar habit of the larvae of many species, 

 viz., that of making pit-falls in sand, wherein to entrap ants and other 

 insects upon which they feed, is familiar to all entomologists. All 

 appear to frequent sandy districts, and some are of very large size and 

 great beauty. Most of them are nocturnal in their habits in the perfect 

 state, and are seldom seen even in localities in which the myriads of 

 pits in the sand formed by their larvae prove them to be abundant. 

 Their flight is slow and feeble, and they are frequently attracted by 

 light. In preserving them, it is often advisable to run something into 

 the body, as recommended for Dragon-flies, for, although they are not 

 so liable to breakage as are those insects, yet their durability is ren- 

 dered much more certain if the body be strengthened by artificial 

 means : the point of dislocation most to be feared is between the 

 abdomen and the meta-thorax. Some 300 species are already known, 

 but many of them are diflUcult to determine, or even to describe, with 

 any degree of satisfaction, and the generic differentiation of the 

 various groups has yet to be undertaken, all done hitherto being only 

 preliminary. 



AscalapJiidce. — Closely allied to the Ant-lions, but distinguished 

 by their lonff clubbed antennae, which are like those of butterflies ; 

 and, in fact, this peculiarity, combined with the gay colours of the 

 restricted genus Ascalaphus (which is peculiar to the European fauna), 

 so far deceived some of the earlier entomologists, that — overlooking 

 all other characters — they described them as Papilios. They frequent 

 dry and sandy districts, but the larvae never make pit-falls. The spe- 

 cies of Ascalaphus have a habit of ' dancing ' in the air in the bright 

 sunshine, and their powers of flight are greater than are those of any 

 other Planipennia. Most of the less gaily coloured exotic genera are 

 nocturnal or crepuscular, and one species has been noticed as having 

 the habit of hawking after insects round the branches of trees in the 

 evening, much after the manner of Dragon-flies, retiring into the 

 crevices of the bark during the day. All of them rest with the wings 

 closed longitudinally and roof-shaped in repose, with the exception of 

 one American genus, in which they are extended horizontally. With 



